Starting the Season
by Bligy
Summary: What if? A simple question. What if Rory went to New York while her and Dean were broken up in the first season? What if she met Jess? What if Jess ended up coming to Stars Hollow anyway? Bring on the angst. Non Completed Version
1. Follow the Train

Today was the day, the last field trip of the year. For some strange reason, the English Department decided to take them to a Broadway production. There didn't seem to be any sense in the matter. After all, Broadway was known for musicals, not Shakespeare.

It seemed like an all around strange day, but for the girl sitting in the middle of the bus, it also happened to be a very sad day as well. Rory Gilmore was still attempting to get over her separation with Dean and the field trip was proving a 'distraction'. Her mother had told her that it would be a good for her to get out of the house and the school. Leaning her head against the window, her eyes took in the city.

They were almost there, and her heart was still heavy. This was supposed to be freedom, it was supposed to be fun… it was supposed to be a distraction. But it didn't seem to be working.

"Rory, it's time to go," barked her teacher, shocking her out of her little world.

"Right, sorry," she stammered and leapt to her feet and stumbled out of the bus.

Along with the Chilton students, there were some grungy looking students sitting around. She eyed a few of them, her eyes lingering for a few seconds on a boy who was reading a book. He looked dark and… well, handsome. As she observed, his eyes flickered up to hers and she jerked away walking again towards her group.

"Everyone come up and grab your tickets!" the teacher barked, yet again, and the students pooled around her.

Almost instantly everyone began comparing tickets. As Rory was about to grab a ticket attached to two others when Paris snatched them away from her. Rory turned and glared at the pompous brat when she tore the tickets and gave them to Madeline and Louise. This left Rory with the last ticket, which was no where near any of her other classmates. She took it and glanced down at it, feeling like ripping it to shreds.

"Time to go in, everyone finds your seats and watch the show!" she barked once more and all the students began filing in.

Slowly she turned back to look at the kid reading the book, but he was gone. She looked around, attempting to find him, but he wasn't there. Sighing, she turned back to walk inside, when she plowed right into him.

"Hey, watch it!" she snapped, while he just scoffed at her, protecting his book. While he attempted to move away, she grabbed his arm, feeling bad. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it," he said with a shrug, hiding the book behind his leg and waiting for her to let him go.

"Uh, I'm Rory," she stammered, attempting to at least talk, maybe even get his name.

"I'm Jess," he said, standing stiffly, as though waiting for her permission to go.

"I… like that book!" she stated, still attempted to get him to talk.

"Okay," he said with a shrug and looked at her as though waiting for her to say something interesting.

"Right, well, I, uh, bye!" she stammered, running away to her seat.

She felt his eyes on her and she turned just as she was entering into the doors of the theatre. Their eyes caught for a moment before she attempted to smile and darted around and to her seat. When she found it, she put her bag down and stormed over to the washroom.

Inside she found Louise and Madeline 'putting on their faces'. Avoiding them like the plague, she made her way into a stall and attempted to make herself see reason.

"Forget him, remember Dean… Dean," she muttered to herself and placed her head in her hands. "Don't be stupid… You… l-l-like Dean."

After almost beating herself to a pulp, she finally got her breathing under control and cracked open the door. Louise and Madeline were gone. That was good enough for her. Opening the door the entire way, she made it out to the sinks before she saw Paris washing her hands a few sinks down the way. Sighing, she washed her hands and darted out before Paris could say anything demeaning.

While slinking back to her seat, for some strange reason, her eyes kept on looking for the boy. She was expending so much effort looking for him that didn't see anyone else around her. Sitting down, she placed her head in her hands and sighed in frustration.

"Bad day, Rory?" asked whoever was beside her… which was of course the boy that she'd been attempting to find.

"Oh, God!" she snapped, jumping and looking over at him.

He was smirking and his eyebrow was up in the air. Instantly she felt that she needed to defend herself and her outburst.

"You're… you're… shh!" she muttered, not being able to think of anything more witty to say, before jerking forward in her seat and attempting to ignore him.

"What?" he asked again, the expression not changing.

"Nothing!" she harped, before noticing the dimming lights, and pointed at the stage. "Look, people, music, watch!"

"Right," he stated with a firm nod, although the smirk was still firmly on his face, before his eyes turned down to his book

As the music rose, she couldn't help but notice that he still wasn't paying attention to the stage. The first song started and she found her eyes drifting back to him again. After the third song, her eyes were firmly glued to him.

"Why aren't you watching the show?" she asked him, before realizing that she was talking.

One of his eyebrows flicked up again and he looked at her from under his heavily-gelled hair. "Why aren't you?" he asked.

"I am!" she indignantly replied and looked back to the stage again.

"Okay" he said with a shrug.

By the time the fifth song had come around, she was back to looking at him out of the corner of her eye. His eyes rose up as well and they linked for a few seconds before she realized that she was blushing and looked away, back at the stage, in enough time to figure out that it was intermission.

"Where are you guys from?" Jess asked, finally putting his book down.

"Chilton Academy… in Hartford," she told him, looking at him carefully.

"Nice," he said, sarcastically nodding his head.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Someplace, it doesn't matter," he told her with a shrug, looking down at his book as though he was tempted to going back to it.

"Are you reading that for school?" she asked, attempting to remember if she'd had to read that or if it had just been fun.

"No," he told her with a shrug, not bothering to look up at her.

"Do you use radar?" she asked him, smiling a little bit.

"What?" he asked, looking up at her like she'd grown a new head.

"Can't you look at anyone when you talk to them?" she asked him.

"Oh, yeah… I'm looking at you," he told her with a smirk.

"That's now, but what about before?" she asked, suddenly able to at least talk to him.

He shrugged, smirking still. "Don't you want to go… freshen up?" he asked.

"No, no, I'm fine," she told him.

"Then, do you want something to drink?" he asked her, as though searching for something for her to be doing, other than pestering him.

"No, I'm still… fine," she told him, smiling to herself.

"Well, how about we go for a walk, then? I don't think that you want to watch this either," he said, nodding towards the stage.

Rory was about to tell him that she'd never agree to that when she heard the five minute call. Her mouth closed and her eyes looked over to the stage before traveling back to him again.

"Uh… yeah, I guess, sure," she told him, brushing hair behind her ear and standing up, moving out of the row and towards the exit.

"Great," he said, standing up and moving beside her.

They both stood and watched each other for a few seconds before they both moved towards the exit.

"So, why are you here?" Rory asked him, when they were out of the theatre itself.

"My mum told me I had to come," he stated with a shrug, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah…I didn't think that this was… well, uh," she muttered, attempting to figure out a way not to insult him.

"What?" he asked her with that smirk back on his face.

"You don't come here often, do you?" she asked him, phrasing it as nicely as she could.

"Don't look the type?" he asked her, smiling full on.

"No," she said, shrugging her shoulders and attempting not to look all that guilty for judging him.

"So, how do you like Hartford?" he asked her.

"It's fine, good," she said, attempting to answer him with as much enthusiasm as she could dare without appearing giddy, which she was starting to feel.

"You alright?" he asked, actually starting a conversation.

"Yeah… what about you?" she asked, holding onto the fragile conversation topic.

"Okay," he told her with another shrug.

"So… what other kinds of books do you read?" she asked him.

"The classics," he said, attempting to avoid sounding like too much of a dork.

"Do you read much?" she asked.

"No," he said with a shrug.

"But…?" she asked, pointing at the very-worn book.

"Well, what is much?" he asked her with a shrug.

"How many times have you read that book?" she asked him curiously.

"About forty times," he answered with a small smirk.

"Much," she stated with a firm nod.

"Come on," Jess told her, grabbing one of her arms and pulling her towards the street. One of the ushers moved towards them quickly, as though to stop them, but Jess yanked harder and pulled her into the streets. He then proceeded to duck into the traffic of the busy city, thus avoiding all the people.

"Do you do this a lot too?" she asked him, shouting above the noise.

"Yeah," he told her, dragging her towards a staircase that led down.

"Where are we going?" she asked, attempting to get some semblance of order into her suddenly chaotic afternoon.

"A place," he told her.

"Could you be anymore vague?" she asked with a small, nervous glance as they got to the bottom, just as a train was arriving.

"Good luck, come on," he told her absently, avoiding the previous question and dragging her into one of the trains before stealing two free seats before anyone else could.

"Where are we going?" she asked him again, giving him the full puppy dog eyes from her baby blues.

"It's a park," he told her finally, as though divulging this information was painful.

"Good, we've narrowed it down to a park… Central Park?" she asked, realizing that she only really knew of Central Park.

"No, Washington State Park," he told her, amused with her lack of New York savvy, apparently.

"Never been there," she admitted.

"How well do you know Manhattan?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh…" she said, attempting to avoid the question.

"How many times have you been?" he asked her.

"Twice," she admitted a bit guiltily.

"An outsider, then," he said, his voice teasing.

"Come to Hartford, then you'll be the outsider," she taunted back, holding her head up and attempting to keep her dignity.

"Uh huh, hell," he told her openly.

"Hell?" she asked, confused.

"It's too small," he told her with a shrug.

"Hartford is huge! I mean… not as big as New York, but still bigger than… well, I uh," she mumbled, trailing off.

"Hartford, huh?" he asked her curiously.

"Yeah," she told him with a nod. Neither of them really knew what they were talking about. It was just… comfortable for some reason.

"Here, this is our stop," he told her, but she moved with him instead of him dragging her along.

"Good," she said as she stood up. Almost as soon as she stood up, someone stole her place. She looked a bit uneasy, but Jess grabbed her hand and led her out the train.

"Come on," he told her, nodding towards the surface. Rory nodded and they raced up the stairs together.

"Do you come here often?" she asked him.

"Yeah, it's cool," he told her, leading her to his favorite bench.

They sat down and a sudden awkwardness overtook her. He seemed to be content just to sit there, but her and her mother had never really cared for silences.

"So," she attempted, unable still to think up a good topic.

"So?" he asked her, leaning his elbows on his knees and turning to look at her.

"Where do you live?" she asked him, searching desperately for a topic.

"I live right there, center of Manhattan," he told her, pointing at a huge apartment a few blocks in front of them.

"Looks… tall," she said with a nod. She'd never really had to deal with tall things that much, but somehow she believed that that building would give her vertigo.

"Amazing view, though," he told her.

"Could we…?" she asked, hoping that she wasn't being rude… or forward. What would he think of her suggesting that they go to his house… she'd only known him for a few minutes. "Wait, that sounded-."

"Bad?" he asked her, smirking again.

"Yeah, I meant, not with the apartment, but I mean the view and the city and, not the-." she stammered.

"Sure, let's go," he told her, standing up and leading towards his house.

"Do we need to go in the subway?" she asked him, not really wanting to go back again.

"Not if you don't want to. We still have an hour or two to kill," he told her with a shrug.

"Have you seen it before?" she asked him curiously.

His silence answered for her. So much for not seeing the musicals all that much, but then of course, he'd also said that he didn't read either. She shrugged the comment off and followed him so that he wouldn't have to touch her again. It wasn't that she didn't like it… it was more that she was scared that she'd do something stupid.

"You alright?" he asked again.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" she said, her voice a little higher than normal.

He hesitated in his step to turn back and give her a look, but kept trudging on to the apartment.

"Why do you keep asking?" she asked him curiously.

"No reason," he explained… or didn't.

"Okay," she said, nodding her head and following him in silence.

This time, however, the silence wasn't really numbing. The city was a lot louder than the park. Fortunately, with her thoughts running wild with images of the strange, monosyllabic boy in front of her; who she was currently observing with her full concentration, she realized he was definitely not that bad looking. Almost instantly, she looked away and attempted to follow him without directly looking at him. Unfortunately, this also meant that she lost him in the crowd.

"Jess?" she shouted, looking around and jumping. Almost instantly she lost her sense of direction. "Jess!?"

"Hey, don't do that," Jess stated, coming up from behind her and grabbing her arm.

Almost as if it was cued, a little spark ignited on her arm, even through the clothing. She almost felt like pulling back, but that hadn't worked too well last time. While he turned around, his hand slid down her arm and captured her hand in his, so that she wouldn't be able to get lost again.

"Sorry!" Rory attempted to shout over the noise.

"It's alright, just stay near me," he told her.

She doubted that she'd be able to get away from him now that he had such a firm grasp on her hand, but… there was always the chance that they would accidentally let go. Right, of course, that was why she tightened her hand around his. Or at least that was what she was telling herself.

"We're here," he told her, letting her hand go and pulled her into the foyer. It was dimly lit, but there were no blinking lights, so it wasn't that bad.

"Great," she said, trailing after him into the apartment and sticking to him as he stalked up the thousands of stories of stairs. To put it mildly, she wasn't a stair person, so she was panting a little bit when they finally reached the fifteen something-ish floor.

"I guess you don't do stairs?" he asked her, noticing the panting.

"No stairs… not really," she stated, leaning against a wall to catch her breath.

Jess smirked and moved over so he was leaning against the wall with her. They both sat there as she caught her breath. Despite the fact that he smoked, was a bookworm, and otherwise didn't do any sort of sports, he still had more stamina than your run of the mill jock. Stairs could do that to a person, especially when you lived on the top floor.

"Ready?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow and nodding towards the roof door.

"Yeah, let's go," she said, only the hint of breathlessness on her voice now.

Jess nodded and leaded the way to the door. He shoved it open and led her out onto the roof. The wind was a lot worse.

"If you're not used to it, it can get scary," he told her, offering his hand.

Was this just an excuse to touch her? In her stubborn pride, she moved past the hand, where she then saw the city skyline. Instantly her stomach crawled into itself, and her legs started shaking. So, this was vertigo, there was an instant consensus with her boy and mind that she didn't care for heights. But just as she was about to turn and bolt, she felt arms snake around her waist and couldn't help but lean into them.

"Scary," she muttered.

"Tired to warn you," he told her and she felt him shrug behind her.

"Yup," she nodded, watching the little specs that were people moving around.

"See that? There's Broadway, Empire State, Central Park, Washington State Park," he told her, pointing them out, but still keeping one arm around her waist.

"This is nice," she told him, finding herself relaxing against him.

"Yeah, you should come here more often," he told her, and she felt his nose against the back of her head. What was he doing?

"That would be nice," she told him, as she suddenly felt something other than his nose pressed against her neck. Her body tensed up, almost as though warning her about Dean-cheatage, but… they weren't dating anymore. Nevertheless, when he felt her tense, he pulled back.

"Sorry," he said, backing off a little bit.

"No, it's alright… I just, y'know, bad break-up," she told him while turning around, trying not to chase him away.

"Whatever," he told her with a shrug.

Then, before she knew what was going on, she dove into him and kissed him. It took a few seconds before he responded, but when he did, she could swear that he'd had more experience than anyone else in Stars Hollow.

"Rory," Jess muttered against her lips.

"Mhm?" Rory asked, leaning into him. One of her hands was in his hair and the other was around his waist.

"The show's letting out in a few minutes," he told her, having just noted what time of day it was.

"What?" Rory asked, breathless. "I have to be on that bus." She turned and bolted towards the stairs.

"Rory! Rory, wait!" Jess shouted after her, catching his wits and trying not to let her get lost.

"I have to get on that bus!" she shrieked again, tearing down the stairs.

"Then let me help you!" he told her, grabbing her and yanking her back again.

"Come on!" she told him, pushing towards the next stairwell.

"Okay, okay," he told her, his voice sounding a little bit annoyed.

"Jess?" she asked him, her eagerness to catch the bus suddenly deflating a little bit with his anger.

"What?" he asked, his voice snapping just a little bit.

"I'm sorry, that was… nice, and I wasn't being-," she attempted to explain.

"Whatever," he told her, leading her towards the exit and then through the streets.

"Jess, wait a second," she asked, tugging on his hand a little bit.

"Let's just catch the subway," he told her, directing them down another staircase.

Rory didn't particularly want to go underground again, but she had just severely wounded his male ego. Thus, she would go with it. Unfortunately for her plan to talk with him, the train appeared right away.

"Let's go," he told her, letting go of her hand and marching into the train. Seeing as how he stole two seats, however, it was obvious that he wasn't totally pissed off.

"Jess-," she attempted again.

"It's alright," he told her with another shrug.

"Jess, please," she asked, putting a hand on his arm.

It was more the touch than the words that attracted his attention. He looked up at her with a look that was almost hostile, but mostly questioning.

"That was nice, I just can't miss this bus," she told him.

"I know," he told her with a shrug, before looking forward again.

She was just about to try again when the doors opened. He dragged her out and was about to take her up when she turned him around again. As his face turned to her, she noted that it was about to scold her for bringing up the subject again. Instead of words, however, she simply kissed him.

He responded eagerly, her sins of the past instantly forgotten. His hands slid around her waist and ran up and down her back. One of her hands laced into his hair and the other braced itself on his back.

"Forgiven?" Rory asked, looking up at him hopefully.

Jess leaned down and kissed her lightly again. "Forgiven," he agreed, then took her hand and led her up to the surface, where the theatre was right across the street.

Fortunately, the bus wasn't even there yet, and the students didn't appear to have gotten out. Rory let out a breath and Jess smirked at her.

"See, I told you that I'd get you here in time," he told her, leading her across the street and to one of the benches outside.

"Thank you," she told him, letting him lead her again.

"It's nothing," he told her with a shrug, and pulled her onto his lap.

Almost instantly they began kissing again. Why was she addicted to this; especially seeing as how she'd probably never see him again? That would be the hard question. Unfortunately, as she was pondering, she pulled back for air in time enough to see the kids leaving the theatre.

"Looks like they're being let out," Rory said, feeling nice about the 'interaction' thus far and almost sad that it was coming to an end.

"Yeah," Jess stated. He was claming up again.

"Great…" she murmured, attempting to figure out what would start the conversation back up again.

"Rory!" the teacher barked at her, the other students already filing onto the bus.

"Uh… I guess I have to go," she told him, getting up and walking away from him, facing him for a few seconds before turning around and walking towards the bus.

"Wait," he told her, grabbing her arm and turning her around.

"Wha-?" she asked, and it was about all she could get out before he kissed her.

Their arms wrapped around each other automatically before Rory pulled away, realizing that her classmates were right behind her.

"Oh, wow… that wasn't supposed to happen," she whispered to herself before pulling away completely and giving him another look before turning towards the bus again.

"Wait!" he shouted again, grabbing her hand and pulling her back into another kiss before he pulled back so he could kiss down her neck.

"Jess…" she said, her mind wanting to pull away but her body was responding to him without her permission.

"Hmm?" he mumbled through his kisses.

"I have to go, bus, ride, school," she told him, although going onto the bus was the last thing on her mind.

"What's your number?" he asked her, pulling away enough to face her.

"Number?" Rory asked. Her mind was completely blank. It was as though she was walking on cloud nine, she'd never felt this way with Dean.

"Yeah, your phone number?" he asked her, the smirk back on his face and his eyebrow popped again.

"Miss Gilmore!" the teacher summoned again.

"I have to go!" Rory suddenly realized, breaking apart from Jess.

"Rory, what's your number?" he shouted after her when she was halfway across the lot.

Rory shouted it back to him before entering into the bus with a very large grin on her face. If it weren't for the fact that she was so happy, she probably would have noticed everyone staring at her. After all, she had just made out with a strange boy from a strange, 'public', school in broad daylight in front of her classmates.

"Who's that?" Paris asked her, obviously not impressed with their kissing.

"Jess… his name is Jess," Rory stated, still out of it. Her cloud had yet to pop.

The ride back was a lot easier than the ride there. At least she wasn't completely depressed. The ride was an hour or two, but with all the questions, it seemed more like ten minutes. Before she knew it, she was off the bus and drifting into the school.

"So, I'm a little tired of this game," a voice scolded the second she had her feet on the ground.

"What game?" she asked, seeing Tristin out of the corner of her eye. Instantly her mood was ruined. She attempted to keep Jess in her mind, but it really wasn't working. She had a feeling that her exceptionally good day was about to be ruined.

"Are we meeting there or what?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, the memory slipping with her anger. After all, Tristin had just told the entire school that she was going to a concert with him, despite her growing friendship with Paris.

"The concert's tonight," he reminded her.

"Well I hope you and the empty seat next to you have a lot of fun," she snapped at him, storming away again, hoping to get away before she started raging on him.

"I'm starting to get a little irritated here," he stormed, walking beside her.

"So am I," she snapped, waving her hand at him as though to get him to go away. Her other hand held her books tightly to her chest.

"What are you mad about?" he asked, stopping her with a hand on her arm. She jerked away, both of her hands now clutching the books.

"You've been telling everyone that I'm going to this thing with you," she yelled in his face.

"Just a couple," he said, shaking the words off.

"You told Paris. Paris and I had just started getting along and now she hates me again," she informed, anger lacing every word. Suddenly Jess was pushed to the background as she took to yelling at him.

"Well, the damage is done. You may as well go to P.J. Harvey with me," he coaxed.

"Never, never, I am never going anywhere with you, ever," she half-screaming and walked away again, towards the front yard. She hugged her books to her chest, hoping that Tristin would just go away so she could continue to be happy about the freak incident in New York, but somehow that seemed to be spoiled.

"You know, these tickets cost me a fortune," he told her, stopping her again.

"They cost your daddy a fortune," she reminded him, pushing him away and started towards the courtyard again, moving faster.

"I don't even know anybody else who's into this stupid guy," Tristin whined.

"PJ Harvey's a woman," Rory hissed at him, although anyone who didn't know her that well could easily mistake it for a roar. That was nothing, although, compared to when he stole her books from her arms, simply slipping them from her grasp. "What are you doing?"

"You'll get them back when you agree to go with me," he teased, his tone still very serious, though, as he held the books a good foot away from her.

"You're pathetic, Tristan, keep the books. I'm leaving," she told him, her last straw having been drawn. Turning, she marched away from him, but was stopped cold in her tracks by the third shock of the day.

"Dean?" she asked upon seeing her ex-boyfriend in the parking lot. He was standing beside his car, obviously waiting for her. "Dean, what are you doing here?"

"I'm leaving," he told her, his arms flailing angrily as he attempted to get into his car.

"Don't go," she begged, rushing towards him and standing in front of the door to block him off.

"I shouldn't have come," he told her, backing away and attempting to not to get too near her.

"No wait?!" she asked, shaking her head and walking towards him again.

"I feel like an idiot," he hissed, staying very clearly out of her reach.

"Why?" she asked, attempting to reason.

"'Cause I come all the way out here, and I see you with him," he snapped, pointing at Tristin. A momentary rush of shock echoed through her body as she thought for a second that he was talking about Jess. But… he couldn't know about Jess, could he? That was stupid. Instead, she went with reasoning the current issue. But… what about Jess?

"No, Tristin was just…" she attempted to explain, but she couldn't find the words with the Jess-panic rising within her.

"I don't care," he told her, biting out each word, while attempting to throw her off. He moved past her and towards the door again.

"No listen," she stated, attempting to get to him before he took off again.

"He's got your books, Rory," he pointed out. For a second, she almost wanted to tell him that he was merely pointing out the obvious, but she bit that back and attempted to reason this as well.

"But he took them and wouldn't give them back. Please just tell me why you're here," she asked him, reaching out a hand for him again.

"I don't even know," he told her, stopping and flailing his arms again.

"Yes you do," she told him. The hope that was welling up inside her at being back with Dean seemed to be dashed with the idea of Jess back in New York.

"'Cause I thought you… forget it," he told her, doing the flailing arm things once again.

"No say it," she asked him, reaching out and finally getting an arm on his shoulder.

"I thought you were trying to talk to me," he finally, stated, some of his steam draining.

"Oh," she said, hope and disappointment somehow laced in the words and her arm fell away. She was hoping that he didn't notice the disappointment.

"I mean, you came to my house," he told her, the hope in his voice obvious.

"That wasn't me," she begged off innocently.

"My sister recognized you from the pictures in my box," he told her, shaking his head as though ashamed that she'd even attempt to contradict him.

"In what box?" she asked with amusement in her words.

"The box of stuff I have of us. Pictures and letters and everything from you," he told her. His eyes darted around, as though making sure no one else heard the comment.

"You have a Rory box?" she asked, almost happy that she wasn't the only one who was miserable with their situation.

"And what was going on at the town meeting? All that stuff about writing a song?" he asked her, more of a suggestion.

"I don't know what I was talking about!" Rory exclaimed, finally doing the arm flailing. It was her term to steam.

"That had nothing to do with me? Well I must have imagined it all then. Your boyfriend's waiting," he snapped again, the kettle was boiling.

"He's not my boyfriend, I hate him!" Rory told him, reasoning once more.

"Whatever," he hissed and pushed past her again.

"Dean!" Rory begged.

"What?" he shouted back at her.

"Stop," she told him.

"Why?" he asked her, finally turning to face her head on.

"Because I-," she hesitated for a second. Could she really say this after what just happened at New York? What about Jess? What were the chances of him even calling her again? Slim to none. Despite the resolve that she felt, something in her heart was still fluttering for the dark, book-obsessed boy she'd just met. "I love you, you idiot!"

The second the words were out, he was on her like white on rice. At first, she didn't mind so much. But then she started comparing the kiss to Jess's. They were different, a lot different… and she could honestly say that this was not the better of the two. The thought made her pull back, guilt running through her in massive waves.

"Let me get my books," she told him, not looking at him so that he wouldn't see the tears in her eyes.


	2. Find Your Way

The trip home was silent. It was as though the car had a spell around it, muting everything. Their reasons were probably very, very different. Dean kept on sending smiles her way, hopeful puppy-dog smiles. Rory tried, desperately, to smile back. It wasn't working.

"Rory, are you okay?" he asked her finally, breaking the repressive silence that had fallen over the car.

"Yeah! Fine, totally… I'm fine," she told him, nodding and twisting her hands in her lap.

But the second that she turned away from him, her thoughts wandered back to Jess. Her skin squirmed with the memory of his hands on her and her lips burned. She closed her eyes and curled her body into herself, wrapping her arms around her knees as she lifted them onto the seats.

"So… why was there a bus at the school?" Dean asked, continuing to attempt to keep some sort of conversation going. Said comment shattered her memories and she looked over at him through her hair.

"There was a fieldtrip, to New York," she told him, careful of how much she actually said.

"What class?" he asked, desperately attempting to keep the conversation alive.

"English," she answered, curling a little bit more into herself.

"What did you see?" he continued.

"Uh… well," she attempted desperately to remember, but the title of the musical was completely foreign to her mental state at the moment.

"That memorable?" he asked her, laughing a little bit. "What was it about?"

"Yeah… I don't remember," she told him, guilty about leaving during intermission, but not about leaving with Jess.

"How could you not remember?" he asked her, turning to face her in the car, his eyes flickering from her to the road.

"I-I don't know, I just… don't," she told him, mumbling a little bit and attempting to avoid further discussion of the topic. "Well… where were you yesterday?"

"Yesterday?" he asked her, thankfully not asking more about the musical.

"Yeah, I went to see you… at Doose's," she told him, smiling in an attempt to keep his mind on the topic.

"I wasn't working," he told her with a shrug.

"Yeah…" Rory said, letting the conversation trail off and turning her thoughts back to Jess and the road.

Dean decided to allow the conversation to go dead. She was grateful to him. It allowed her to figure out her feelings. Her fingers twisted around themselves, weaving in an attempt to get rid of the nervous feeling, butterflies so to speak. After what felt like seconds, they were at her house.

"Uh, Rory?" Dean asked, poking her shoulder to snap her out of her little dream-world involving Jess… and arms, and lips and-

"Huh, yeah?" she asked, blinking and turning to face him. She let her legs down and noticed that she was home.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked her, concern in his voice.

"Yeah, okay, fine, thanks," Rory told him, opening the door and running towards the house. She heard Dean get out of the car and she stopped, suddenly realizing that she'd completely ditched her new-old-boyfriend. She turned around, dropping her bag and running back to him. She kissed him firmly on the lips, having to force herself to do it.

"Rory… can I come in?" he asked her, motioning at the house.

"Uh… can I tell my mom first?" she asked, making up an excuse.

"Oh, yeah, do you want me to wait here while you give her the news?" he asked her, wrapping his arms around her tightly.

"D-Dean, can you come tomorrow? M-maybe for dinner?" she stammered, desperately attempting to make any excuse to get him not to follow her.

"I guess…" he said, sounding hurt.

Rory lifted herself up on her toes and kissed him softly. "Thanks, I'm sorry, see you tomorrow, bye!" she chirped, before turning around, picking up her backpack and running inside the house.

"Mom!" she shouted, but no one answered her. She ran around the house, wanting to tell someone about Jess, before she realized that now she was with Dean… and Jess probably wasn't going to be an acceptable since it would be considered cheating. Considering how much her mother liked Dean… she wouldn't like it. Sighing, she scanned her mind for someone to tell about it. Knocking off her mother that meant that there was only one person to tell. She snatched the phone, ran into her room, and dialed Lane's number.

"Hello?" Mrs. Kim answered, her voice snapping as always.

"It's Rory, Mrs. Kim, can I talk to Lane, please?" she asked, and heard a sharp reply before the phone was tossed to Lane.

"Rory?" she asked, her voice was excited.

"Lane, can you meet me in the gazebo?" Rory asked, her own was excitement barely contained.

"What's up?" Lane demanded.

"Just, meet me there," Rory told her. "Bye!" She hung up and threw the phone down on her bed, then changed into different clothes. For some reason, with Jess in mind, she snuck upstairs and changed into some of her mother's clothes. This included a short skirt and a halter top. She ran a hand down her side in the full-length mirror, incredibly self-conscious.

"He's not here, Rory… you're never going to see him again," she told herself, which didn't explain why she nearly jumped out of her skin as the phone rang. The damn butterflies told her that it was him.

As she stumbled the last few steps, she got to the receiver and clicked the

'talk' button at the last ring. "H-hello?" she asked.

"Rory?" asked the voice that was most definitely Jess's.

"Hey, uh… how are you doing?" she asked him, nervous already.

"I'm fine," he said, and she could almost see the smirk on his face.

"Good, that's good," she stated, attempting to figure out words that wouldn't make her feel like an idiot.

"What about you? Was the bus alright?" he asked her, contributing a question to the conversation.

"I'm fine and the bus ride was fine too," she said, shifting a little bit.

"Beautiful," he said, and there was suddenly a silence that she could almost feel again that should have been filled with a little bit more… wait, was thinking about kissing him cheating?

"Hey, how about you come out here this weekend?" he asked, breaking the silence for once.

"I-I can't," she told him, pressing a hand to her forehead as she thought about her situation.

"Why not?" he asked, his voice held just the slightest bit of hurt.

"Look… Jess, I, well, my ex-boyfriend, the one I was telling you about… he's back, and we're back, and I-," she stammered, before cutting herself off.

"So you have a boyfriend?" he asked, and this time his voice definitely held hostility.

"Yes, I'll come," she told him, not knowing why the hell she just said that.

"What, and cheat on your boyfriend? I wouldn't hear of it," he scoffed, and she could tell he was about to slam the phone down.

"Wait, Jess, I'll meet you and I'll explain things to you… and I'll tell you what's going on," she pleaded, wanting to see him, and for him not to hang up.

"Yeah, whatever," he said, brushing off the comment.

"Jess, please. It means nothing, he means nothing to me," she told him, shocked that the words were true. Her body almost seemed to rebel, freezing her in place.

"Then why the hell are you with him?" Jess asked. His voice still harsh, almost abrasive against her skin.

"I don't know… I-I don't know. Just, please, meet me, uh…" she trailed off, attempting to think of a place.

"Washington State Park… I'll meet you there. And Rory?" he asked, the anger in his voice seeming to be gone.

"Yeah?" she asked, the strange cold feeling dissipating with the idea of seeing him. Instead the butterflies returned.

"I-I, I'll see you Saturday," he told her, and she was so filled with warmth that she almost forgot that she had no idea what time.

"Wait, when?" she asked him, hoping to get the question out before he hung up.

"Whenever," he told her.

"Alright… I'll be there around eight, okay?" she asked him.

"Eight? Don't tell me you're a morning person," he asked, heavy sarcasm laced into his voice.

"There's nothing wrong with being a morning person," she objected in mock-defense.

"Alright, but if I'm not there, you know where to find me," he told her, obviously talking about his apartment.

"But I don't know your apartment number… or your last name," she said as an afterthought.

"My name's Mariano and my apartment's 1502," he told her, the sound of an almost-laugh on his lips.

"Right, Gilmore," she said, happy that she'd gotten that information out of him.

"Gilmore?" he asked in confusion.

"My last name, it's my last name. Rory Gilmore," she informed him.

"Oh, right," he said, the confusion abated.

"Good, I'll see you… wait, tomorrow is Saturday isn't it?" she asked, her eyes widening with that realization.

"Yeah," he said with more amusement on his voice.

"Right, then I'll see you tomorrow," she said, nodding on her end of the line, even though he couldn't see it.

"Okay, I have to go, this is long distance… I'm on a payphone, and I've run out of change," he told her.

"Right, okay, sure, tomorrow. Bye!" she said, trying to keep herself calm.

"Bye, Rory," he said, although he didn't really want to hang up, he was raiding his pockets, but there weren't anymore coins.

"Bye, Jess," she said, and there was a moments hesitation where she almost said something else, but the phone went dead, he'd run out of time. Slowly, she pressed the 'talk' button again, ending the conversation.

Looking at the phone for a few seconds, she almost felt like calling him back, but she couldn't. While staring at the phone, it occurred to her that she'd asked Lane to meet her at the gazebo, almost half an hour ago.

Letting out a small sound of shock, she scrambled off her bed; put on a pair of threatening looking boots, which were her mother's, and then ran out of the house.

It took her all of ten minutes to get there, where Lane was waiting. She stood up when Rory darted up the stairs. The Korean girl had a look of anger for a moment, before noticing her friend's large, large smile… and strange attire.

"Alright, spill," Lane demanded.

"Today was my field trip, to New York," Rory told her.

"Right! To that… musical," Lane said, like the word was distasteful. It wasn't rock and roll… unless it was Rent, which Lane was able to tolerate.

"Yeah, but when I was there, another school was too. Paris stole the last group-ticket and I had to sit by the other school… and there was a boy, and he… well," Rory stammered at the end, afraid of what people would think about her if she told them that she'd cut a school field trip to go with a boy.

"A boy!? You met a boy in New York? Alright, details!" Lane asked, excited that Rory was finally getting over Dean.

"His name is Jess, he's… dark and he reads and he's smart," Rory declared, wringing her hands a little bit.

"Jess? Jess what? What happened!" Lane asked, grabbing Rory's hands and squeezing them in encouragement.

"Jess Mariano, and we, well… we left during intermission and he showed me around, and I saw his apartment, and he took me to the roof," she admitted guiltily.

"Oh, my God! Rory skipped school!" Lane squealed.

"No! I didn't, just… the musical," Rory protested.

"You skipped school!" Lane screeched.

Rory laughed and shushed her friend, squeezing her hands a little bit more and looking around to make sure that no one was in hearing distance.

"Yes, okay, okay, I skipped school, and… well, I kissed him," she said, looking at her friend with doe-eyes.

"You kissed him!?" Lane screeched again, and Rory had to make her 'shh' louder to calm her down.

"Yeah, we kissed and... it was amazing, and I'm going to see him tomorrow," Rory told her.

"Does your mom know?" Lane demanded.

"No, I haven't seen her… but Lane, I can't tell her," Rory said, earnestly squeezing her hands again.

"Why not?" Lane asked, confused.

Thanks to both of their constant chatter, no one noticed Dean coming up behind them. He was dressed in his apron, obviously having just gotten off work.

"Hello, Lane," he greeted, shocking the two girls apart. Rory looked between Lane to Dean, concern and panic in her eyes, before she gave Dean a blinding smile and kissed him.

"Hey, uh… I was just telling Lane that we got back together!" Rory lied through her teeth, and looked past Dean to see Lane looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Oh, my… God!" Lane screamed, looking at Rory like she'd grown another head.

"Lane!" Rory hissed in warning, begging her not to say anything.

"Dean, I have to… come on," Lane demanded, grabbing Rory's sleeve and dragging her away from her new 'boyfriend'.

"I'll see you later!" Rory yelled at Dean as she was carted away.

"Tomorrow, dinner?" Dean asked, reminding her.

"Tomorrow?" Rory repeated, feeling that cold feeling run through her body again.

When they were out of Dean's earshot, in the alley behind Luke's to be exact, Lane grabbed Rory's hands again and turned her so they were facing each other.

"You're back with Dean?" Lane asked, confusion again I her voice.

"Yeah," Rory said, guilt riding the word.

"But what about Jess?" Lane asked, her voice holding deep concern.

"I don't know," Rory said, her voice rising and she threw her arms up, pushing away from Lane.

"Does he know?" Lane asked.

"Huh?" Rory replied, it was now her turn to be confused.

"Does Dean know… about Jess? Wait, you're going to see Jess tomorrow, aren't you? Does Jess know about Dean?" Lane asked at three billion words a second.

"No, yes… and yes," Rory answered, sounding more and more miserable with each word.

"So what are you going to do?" Lane asked, desperately in love with Rory's drama.

"You have to help me! I have to see Jess tomorrow, because I can't call him… but I can't tell Dean that I can't be there either… help!" Rory demanded.

"Alright, alright, oh my God!" Lane shrieked again, dancing around in a circle. "You have a love triangle!"

"I-I don't want it… I just want-," she cut herself off, suddenly realizing that what she wanted was very vivid in her mind.

"What!?" Lane demanded.

"I… want… this to be over," Rory said, lying through her teeth for the second time that night.

"But what are you going to do?!" Lane asked, still thriving in the moment.

"I don't know… I'm going to see Jess tomorrow," Rory said, very firm in that commitment.

"Alright, so what do we do?" Lane said, finally calming down a little bit.

"Umm… maybe you can say I'm at your house for a few hours?" Rory suggested going back to wringing her hands again.

"I'm going out tomorrow… wait! Perfect! You can say you're coming out with momma and I to the prayer rally!" Lane suggested.

"But my mom would never believe that," Rory said, frowning.

"But it's in Hartford… in the mall! We could say that you're doing it for the shopping!" Lane further pressed.

"Okay… okay, that's good! What about Dean?" Rory said, her enthusiasm in the first comment fading with the second.

"I don't know the rally lasts until nine…" Lane told her, shrugging a little bit.

"We could say I got sick?" Rory suggested, knowing how weak it sounded.

"No, then I would have to be home too… I don't know," Lane said helplessly, flapping her arms a little bit in desperation.

"I've got it!" Rory finally said, turning to face Lane and stopping her pacing. "We'll tell him that… I forgot about the prayer rally because I was so excited… and that we've been planning this for weeks… and that your mom will bury me in the back yard if I don't go!"

"Yes!" Lane exclaimed, hugging her friend close.

"I have to go see Dean! I'll talk to you later!" Rory said, dashing out of the alley and making a beeline for Doose's Market.

"Good luck!" Lane called, before dashing back to her house, excitement flowing from her every movement.

Rory watched Lane enter into her house, hesitating at the door to the Market. When she finally gained up enough strength, she pushed it open and looked for Dean. It wasn't hard to find him, as he was the tallest thing in the store.

"Dean, hi," Rory said, walking up to him awkwardly.

"Hey Rory!" Dean greeted enthusiastically. "You and Lane finished your talk?"

"Yeah… she reminded me about the rally tomorrow, I promised I'd go," Rory told him, hoping that her eyes were conveying regret.

"Oh… so dinner's off then?" Dean said, hurt in his voice.

"I'm sorry, I totally forgot… I was just so excited, y'know, with the 'us getting back together'? I guess… what about Sunday?" she suggested meekly, not wanting to make him upset.

"Sunday, sure, that's cool," Dean said, obviously attempting to lighten his tone for her.

"Great!" Rory exclaimed, leaning up and kissing him again. "I'll see you then!"

"Yeah… sure," Dean responded as she turned around and darted out of the store, as though something very large and scary was chasing her.

When she got outside, she let out a huge breath and started home. With any luck, her mother would be home and she'd be able to get out the same lie in ten minutes, so that she wouldn't have to attempt to convince herself out of what she was doing. The trip home was very, very short, and she was at her door in minutes. Fortunately, the jeep was parked out front. She bounced up the steps and into the house.

"Mom! I'm home!" Rory shouted, and was quite pleased to hear an answering call from the kitchen.

"Hey sweetie!" Lorelei called, standing up with her cup of coffee and moving over to where her daughter was.

"How was work?" Rory asked, trying not to be too obvious in her panic about tomorrow.

"It was good, Michel scared off some tourists and Sookie burnt part of her uniform and-," she stopped short, noticing the darting eyes and the strange gestures of her daughter, the darting eyes and the hands… not to mention the clothes. "Are you okay?"

"What? Me, yes fine, totally okay!" Rory stated, nodding her head and stopping her hands by holding them behind her back. "I was just going to tell you that… I'm going to a prayer rally with Lane tomorrow!"

"Prayer rally… tomorrow?" Lorelei asked, sensing that there was something fishy about this.

"Yeah! It's in Hartford, at the mall! I thought I'd go and take the breaks to shop a little bit," Rory told her enthusiastically. "Lane wanted me to help her pick out some clothes."

"Umm, well, I guess that's alright," her mother said, nodding a little bit, but still sensing something fishy. "When does it start?"

"Oh, eight! At eight in the morning!" Rory told her, not even considering the time.

"Are you going to be able to function?" Lorelei asked, attempting to crack a joke, but her daughter didn't even seem to notice. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yup! Totally fine!" Rory squeaked, her hands now wringing a little behind her back.

"Okay… when does it end?" Lorelei asked, attempting to ask the important questions.

"Nine," Rory stated firmly.

"Fourteen hours? You're going to endure fourteen hours of… that?" Lorelei asked, her suspicions up to an all-time high.

"Well, it'll be with Lane, and she really wanted me to go… so that she wouldn't be alone!" Rory said, her adrenaline calming down a little bit and exhaustion falling into its place.

"Okay, how about we go to Luke's before we head off to dinner?" Lorelei asked, trying to get her daughter to calm down. Why was she so nervous about a prayer rally? Was she going to meet someone?

"Sure!" Rory confirmed; glad to be out of the lying-situation.

"Okay… and what are you wearing?" Lorelei asked, deciding to address the attire that her, normally prudent, daughter had on.

"Oh, nothing… it was nothing, just… I don't know, I felt like being fancy… for Dean," Rory said, adding in the last bit as a prayer that it would explain some things.

"Dean? Wait, you mean that you two are…?" Lorelei asked, excitement rising in her voice. Maybe that was why she was so nervous?

"Yeah! He came to school, to pick me up!" Rory told her, glad that she wouldn't have to lie about that.

"Oh, sweetie that's awesome… but I wanted to tell you that… Max proposed to me," Lorelei said, springing the fact on her and hoping that it was the right time.

"He what?!" Rory asked, pushing the tomorrow-issue to the back burner and focusing on her mother's announcement.

"Yeah! But… I don't know how to answer him," she said, now wringing her hands around 'her' coffee cup. "Why don't you go change, we'll go to Luke's, and we can talk about it on the way to dinner?"

"Change?" Rory asked, not registering that she was still in Jess-mode.

"Unless… you want to go see grandma like that?" Lorelei asked, frowning in confusion again at the attire.

"Right!" Rory nodded, turning and darting into her room.

"There's nothing I should know about, right?" Lorelei asked through her daughter's door.

"No… everything's okay!" Rory called back, stripping out of her clothes and putting on a Polo and a pair of jeans.

"Okay… but you could know you can tell me, right?" asked the eldest Gilmore, leaning against the wall beside the door.

"Yeah, of course! You're my best friend," Rory said as she opened the door and stepped out, smiling at her mother. "Okay! Let's go!"

"Alright," Lorelei said, but there was obviously something wrong. She placed her coffee into the sink and they both walked out to the car. What probably should have been a happy moment, Dean and Rory getting back together, and Lorelei and Max possibly getting married, was marred by both of them; Rory with Jess and Lorelei with her indecision about marriage, especially when the man in question wasn't Christopher.

The trip to Luke's was silent, as though they had both suddenly lost their ability to talk. Rory was deeply in thought about tomorrow, how to get there, what would be the best way to get to Washington State Park, and Lorelei was busy attempting to figure out what was wrong with her daughter.

When they arrived at Luke's Lorelei stopped the jeep and got out of the car, only to realize that Rory didn't appear to have noticed at all. She frowned and walked over to the passenger's side, opened the door, and waved a hand in front of Rory's face.

"You hoo!" she said, snapping Rory out of her daze.

"What? We're here, right! Sorry," Rory apologized and hopped out of the car. She quickly made her way up the steps and into the diner.

Lorelei followed slower, calculating everything and wondering if there was something going on tomorrow with Dean. She'd have to watch to make sure. Going at a snail's pace, she opened the door and walked into the diner, sitting with Rory at the table almost directly in front of the door. Luke was standing behind the counter, scribbling on something. He looked up from his scribbling to see the two of them and started over with two cups and coffee.

"What a surprise, don't you have your dinner tonight?" Luke asked the two silent women. It was shocking to see them so quiet, normally they never shut up.

"Huh, oh, yeah! We're just… stopping for coffee!" Rory told him when her mother didn't answer.

"Uh huh," Luke said, looking between the two of them. Deciding that it was more trouble than it was worth, he poured their coffee and walked back to the counter.

"So, Rory… how long have you known about the prayer rally?" Lorelei asked, wondering if this had been a long-time plan, or something just out of the blue… an excuse, perhaps.

"Lane just asked me today!" Rory told her, giving her mother a small smile and a quick look, before taking a sip of her coffee and checking the time. "When did Max…?"

"Just a few hours ago… he sent me flowers," Lorelei told her, a small smile of her own on her lips.

"Aww! That's so sweet!" Rory said, again glad that the spotlight wasn't directed at her. "We have to be at Grandma's in a few minutes… we should probably go."

"But I haven't finished my coffee!" her mother whined, attempting to lighten up the situation again.

"But we're going to be late!" Rory snapped, and then looked shocked. She was surprised by the anger that she held in her tone.

"Oh… well, okay, I guess we could go," Lorelei said, hurt by the anger. She stood up, tossing a few bills onto the table, and walked out of the diner.

"Are you two okay?" Luke asked from the counter, frowning at Rory's outburst. He'd managed to tune them out, but he definitely wasn't used to the young girl shouting like that.

"Yeah, we're fine," Rory muttered, giving Luke an apologetic glance and racing after her mother.

The trip to the Gilmore Mansion was silent, as was the dinner… and then again on the way back. Neither girl attempted to create any sort of conversation, even when Emily demanded it. In the end, as they arrived home, they both went their separate ways, without even a 'goodnight'.

Rory drifted into her room, confused at her actions and not sure why she was doing what she was doing. Would it really be so bad for her mother to know about Jess? But her mind could instantly tell her, without a shadow of a doubt, that yes, it would be bad. Sighing, she sat down on the bed, slumping over a little bit.

Just as she was about to relax and change for bed, the phone rang. It was still in her room, so she managed to get it on the first ring.

"H-hello?" she asked, her stomach doing the butterfly thing again.

"Hey," Jess answered, and the butterflies increased their rhythm.

"Oh, hi! I was just getting ready for bed," she told him, happy to hear his voice for the third time that day.

"Turning in a bit early, aren't you?" he asked, a small laugh on the tail end of the words.

"Not if I have to catch a bus tomorrow at six," she pointed out sarcastically, and decided to get ready for bed anyway.

"Right… six, why are you coming so early again?" Jess asked her, his voice pleasant and conversational. It was nice to see that his wall wasn't up anymore.

"I don't know… I just wanted to have… time, so we could, do… things," Rory said, tripping over her words and trying to find other words to fill in the spaces.

"That's cool, how long are you staying tomorrow?" he asked.

"Umm, till about eight," she told him, making sure to keep track of the times in her head. If it wasn't so late, she'd attempt to call Lane to make a better plan… theirs had a 'lot' of holes.

"Wow, a lot of time," Jess said, his voice holding a bit of surprise. "What do you think we'll be doing?"

"I don't know, you're the New York expert, I thought that I'd leave it up to you," she said, smiling against the phone as she slipped her shirt off and put her PJ shirt on.

"Did you have anything in mind?" he asked her, obviously fishing for ideas.

"Well… I like books," she told him, although it should have been a give-in.

"Yeah, of course… books. Alright, I think I have an idea," he said, and she could see the smile on his face. It was easy to talk to him on the phone, she decided.

"What is it?" she asked him, curious as to his plans for the next day.

"Oh, you'll find out," he said cryptically.

"Tell me!" Rory demanded, deciding that she wanted to know what to wear.

"You'll find out tomorrow, just wear comfortable shoes," he told her, and then there was a shuffling on the line. "Hey look, I have to go, I've run out of change again, but I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah… tomorrow, see you then!" she said, eager for the trip. "Bye, Jess."

"Bye Rory," he said, and the line went dead.

Rory sat, fully PJ-ed up, and thought about the next day. Once again, she was about to relax, when there was a knock at her door.

"Yeah! Come in!" Rory said, shuffling on her bed and getting underneath the covers.

"Hey, I just wanted to ask… are you really going to a rally tomorrow?" Lorelei asked, her voice almost flinching with the idea of her daughter lying to her.

"Yes, mom, I'm going to a prayer rally tomorrow… with Lane, you can call her and ask," Rory said with a shrug, offering the phone.

"Okay… I believe you. G'night, Rory," Lorelei said, shuffling a little bit in indecision before leaving.

Rory sat on her bed and watched the door as her mother left. With a sigh, she thought about what was going on in her life with Jess, and decided that it wasn't going to work. She was going to have to choose one or the other. Tomorrow… she'd choose tomorrow. Sighing further, she roughly threw her blanket off and swung her legs over the bed. Before she knew what she was doing, she found herself dressed and out of her window.

A quick look up to her mother's room showed someone moving around and then getting into bed, and turning the light off. Preparing herself, she took in a deep breath before dashing off into the night.

Ten minutes later, she was sitting outside of Lane's house, carefully whispering her best friend's name as loudly as she could, trying not to wake up Mrs. Kim. It only took a few seconds before Lane stumbled to her window.

"Rory?" she asked, pushing up the windowsill.

"Lane! I need your help!" Rory said, hiding behind a tree and looking up, trying not to talk at normal level.

"What? What's going on?" Lane asked, leaning out her window for a better hearing range.

"I told mom that the thing is fourteen hours long… when are you guys going?" Rory asked, addressing the worst problem in their little ploy.

"Fourteen hours long? Are you insane?! We're not leaving until five!" Lane half-shouted.

"Then you have to avoid my mom!" Rory said, whispering urgently.

"Are you okay?" Lane asked, and Rory could recognize the frown that everyone had been giving her today.

"Do you think we can actually do this?" Rory asked, doubting her plan.

"Go to sleep, Rory, I'll talk to you tomorrow. I want details!" Lane shouted, at normal voice level, before slamming the window shut and crawling back into her bed, just before Mrs. Kim came in to shout at the 'sleeping' girl in the bed.

Rory hesitated for a second. She needed to rant about this, but turned around and headed back to her house instead. A quick glance at her watch told her that she would only get about five hours of sleep. She needed those five hours before seeing Jess, or she was going to have a panic attack.

Shoving her hands in her jacket pockets, she made her way home slowly. Her window was still open and it allowed her to sneak inside. Her mother's window was still dark; she took that as a good sign. Crawling beneath her covers, she thought about changing, and then decided that she didn't want to. She was too tired to change, too scared, and too panicked.

After another hour, she finally felt her body relaxing out of desperation rather than actual wanting to sleep. Her eyes finally fluttered to sleep, but the only thing she could think about was Jess… and how she was going to deal with him tomorrow.


	3. Take a Chance

At five am, her alarm sounded. Rory leapt out of bed, barely having been able to sleep in the first place. After four hours of sleep, she got out of bed and wandered to her closet. It only took her a few seconds before she decided that she didn't have anything in her closet that she wanted to wear.

Searching her floor, she found the clothes that she'd worn the day before and slipped them back on. After a quick dose of eyeliner and assorted other applications of make-up, she felt that she was ready. As she was just about to leave, she noticed that there was noise coming from the kitchen. Her mother was already awake? Cringing, she crept to her window.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to her mother, who wouldn't be able to hear her.

Crawling out of the window was not an easy mission in the shoes and the skirt. Nevertheless, she got out and crept out into the driveway. Seconds later, she heard a knock on her bedroom's door. Flinching, she carried on, pushing her mother from her mind.

The trip to the bus station was only a few minutes long, and she perched on the bench to wait for the early bus. Unfortunately, before the bus arrived, she noticed her mother's jeep coming around the corner. Another thread of panic, which was getting rather familiar, ran through her stomach. Looking around, she ducked behind a tree that was near the bench.

Her mother got out of the car beside Luke's and looked around, obviously checking for her. Just as she was about to start running, the bus came around the corner and towards the bus stop. She leaped to her feet and ran for the door, checking her mother's current status. Rory saw the frown on her mother's face, avoided eye contact and hid behind the arriving bus.

She saw her mom coming towards her and stumbled onto the bus the second the door opened.

"Look, I'll give you ten dollars if you leave… now," Rory told the bus driver. He shrugged and closed the door, almost peeling out of the lot.

Rory paid her toll, including his 'tip', and a ticket to New York, before drifting to the back and sitting down. She sat down and thought about what she was doing. Her mother probably saw her getting onto the bus, but there was always the chance that she thought she was going into Hartford… right. Frowning, she curled her legs up to her chest, which was quite the feat in the skirt.

Looking outside, she realized that she'd forgotten to bring a book. Instead, she proceeded to read the labels on the bus. After a few minutes, she'd read every single ad on the back of the bus and had to move forward so that she could read the rest of them. Barely half an hour later, she was at the front of the bus, reading the schedules and pondering if the bus driver had some sort of bus manual she could read.

"You look bored," the bus driver said, looking at her with his mirror.

"Yeah… well, I wasn't prepared for the trip," Rory stated, smiling at him.

"Any reason for the quick take-off?" he asked her, making conversation.

"My mom… I'm going to New York… she doesn't know," she stated, deciding that it wouldn't exactly hurt her to tell him, as he would never meet anyone from Stars Hollow, let alone her mother.

"Ah, we get a few of those. Running away from your problems doesn't always work, though," he told her, glancing at her in concern.

"Oh, I'm not running away, just meeting someone," she said, smiling at him.

"Okay, be careful. New York's a big place," the bus driver said with a small smile in her direction. It was obvious that he was used to having quite a few girls running away.

"Don't worry… I will," Rory stated with a firm nod, and went back to reading the signs for the second time. "Umm… hey, do you have something to read?"

Fortunately, the bus driver happened to have a newspaper, and then a bus-manual when she'd finished that. The trip passed a lot quicker when she was absorbed in her reading. After only a few minutes, she arrived and crawled out of the bus. Looking around, she got her bearings and headed off towards the direction that she believed was Washington Square Park.

After a few minutes, she found a subway station and figured that it would be the easiest way to get to the park. Locating the station, she got onto the train and got to a part of New York she actually recognized. After that, it didn't take her long to meander to the park. Unfortunately, Jess was no where in site. Checking her watch, she noted that she was over half an hour early. Shuffling, she located Jess's apartment on the horizon and headed towards it.

In her mind, she made sure to keep her navigational sense keen. Before long, she got to the dimly lit foyer that she recognized and found his door unlocked. Sighing, she looked at the stairs, and then at the elevator, before glancing back to the stairs again. Finally, she gave in to the fact that it was seven thirty in the morning and that she was too tired to go up stairs.

The second that she got into the elevator, however, she wanted to go back to the stairs. Stubborn to the core, however, she pressed the 'fifteen' button and traveled the rather long distance up to the fifteenth floor. The second that the doors were opened, she leapt out, deciding that elevators were evil. She looked around and located where his apartment was, it was the last one to the left. A corner suite, she decided.

When she lifted her hand to knock, the door fell open. She pressed it open further and walked into the apartment. There were clothes everywhere. It was like walking into a hurricane zone. Looking around, she located the only closed door and attempted to make her way to it while not touching as many of the clothes as she could manage. Stumbling the last few steps, after getting caught in a camouflage shirt, she pressed her ear against the door and heard what sounded like snoring on the other side.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, which she then regretted based on the stench of the apartment, she pressed open the door. Inside was Jess, dressed only in his boxers. Attempting to avert her eyes from his sleeping form, she walked along the edges of the room, where the clothes were less dense, before deciding that she didn't have much of a choice but to make her way to the bed. Reaching over the bed, she poked his shoulder and he jerked away from her, but didn't wake up.

"Jess? Jess, please wake up!" Rory whispered, reaching over and poking his shoulder again.

Her grumbled and further turned away from her. Sighing, she put a knee onto the bed and shoved his shoulder a little harder with her finger.

"Liz, stop it… Rory's coming over… I need to sleep," he mumbled in his sleep, but still didn't wake up.

"Jess!" Rory said at normal voice level, shoving him.

With her help, and his own turning away from her, Jess flew off the bed and hit the floor. She fell onto him with their combined momentum.

"What the hell?!" Jess shouted at the top of his lungs, grabbing Rory's shoulders and attempting to wake up.

"Jess!" Rory shouted, grabbing onto his arms and attempting to crawl off him, but he was holding her there.

"Rory?" he asked, blinking to get the sleep out of his eyes.

"Yes, it's me, it's eight!" she told him, squirming and attempting to get out of his hands, but they were a lot stronger than they looked.

"It's eight? Oh, right," he said, but didn't bother to move. He watched her from barely an inch away.

"Yeah…" Rory said. Her voice was a whisper as they closed the distance between them.

When they finally met in the middle, he let go of her arms in favor of wrapping them around her waist and she let her arms wrap around his neck. It was only after her hands started trailing up and down his back that she realized that he was still half naked.

"Jess, you need to get dressed," she told him between kisses.

"Clothes, right," he said, but they didn't stop.

After a few seconds, she finally broke away from him, pressing her hands against his chest and glanced up at his eyes. She leant forward, hesitantly, and kissed him lightly before pushing away again.

"Get dressed," she said, suddenly realizing that she was sitting on a boy's lap, who was wearing next to nothing… and that this was closer to any boy than she'd ever been before in her life.

"Okay," he told her with a nod and helped her off him before standing up and walking around his room, looking for clothes to wear.

"Umm, who's Liz?" she asked, realizing that he'd said a foreign female name; one that he was obviously close to, as she would poke him in his sleep. Was he seeing someone else too?

"She's my mom," he told her, looking over at her with a smirk.

"Oh, right, sure, mom," Rory said, instantly feeling a lot better.

"Uh… could you," Jess said, nodding towards the door and motioning at the clothes. At first she didn't realize what he was saying before her eyes widened and she stumbled over her feet again in her effort to get to the door.

"Sorry!" she said, averting her eyes and making her way into the kitchen.

Once there, she looked around. A loaf of molded bread, and a piece of stale cheese were lying on the counter. After a few seconds she went to the fridge and looked inside, hoping to get something for them to drink or eat. Unfortunately, all she found was more moldy food and a head of very slimy lettuce.

As she was about to poke something that looked like it 'might' have been good, Jess came out of his room. He was wearing the camouflage shirt that she'd tripped over, a black leather jacket and black pants. His hair was gelled like she'd first seen him and she smiled at him, nervous once more.

"Hey," he said, moving past her and closing the fridge.

"Hi," she said, noticing his instant effort at hiding his lack of food.

"Do you want to go somewhere for breakfast?" he asked her, avoiding her eyes.

"Sure," Rory said, grabbing one of his hands and squeezing it in encouragement.

"Okay, come on," he said, smiling at her and walking towards the door. He kept hold of her hand and looked at the elevator, which was still on their floor. "You took the elevator?"

Rory felt a sudden rush of giddiness when they continued holding hands after the moment was finished. When they got to the hallway, she noticed the smirk and the elevator. "Yeah… I'm never going on another elevator again," she told him, nodding a little bit.

"This place does that to people," he said, leading her towards the stairs.

They walked down them slowly, each seeming to revel in each other's presence. The fifteen floors past very slowly, and by the time they got to the third floor, they were kissing again, stumbling down the steps. When they finally got to the bottom floor, they broke away and Jess took her hand again, leading her out of the apartment.

"Where are we going?" Rory asked curiously.

"Just this place I know," he told her, smiling at her.

Rory nodded and decided that she wouldn't have really known about the place even if he'd told her. The walk was only a few minutes before they reached a strange looking German store. He opened the door for her and allowed her entrance.

"This is nice," she said, not really expecting such a place in New York. It was… cute.

"Yeah…" he said, leading her to the counter. "What do you want?"

"I don't know… coffee?" she suggested. After so many years of going to Luke's, she really didn't know what anywhere else served.

"Alright," he said with a nod and ordered two coffees and two plates of pancakes. "Their breakfast here is good."

"Good, great!" she said, before sitting down at the table nearest to the counter and looked up at him.

Jess turned and sat at the table as well. They looked at each other over the table and he grabbed one of her hands, twisting their fingers together. "I'm glad you came," he told her, giving the goofy smile that only happened when two people cared for each other.

"Yeah, so am I," she said, also giving him the 'goofy' smile before she realized that she had. The smile just didn't seam to want to go away. She looked away from him, trying to gather her wits, but held onto his hand tightly.

"But, Rory, what about… uh, your boyfriend?" he asked, and it was obvious to hear that this wasn't his favorite topic to bring up.

"Right… his name is Dean, but… I don't love him," she said, looking up at him with her large doe-eyes.

"So… why are you with him?" he asked, letting go of her hand and pulling his hands down into his lap.

The loss of contact almost seemed to hit her physically. She gathered herself, feeling suddenly very upset at the idea of losing Jess. She'd only known him for two days, but she was already craving hand-holding. Something told her that this was not a good sign.

"I-I-I don't know… I just… my mom, and the town… and they thought that we were together and that we were meant, so I just said 'yes' and I'm sorry, I didn't know if you were going to call," she told him, fumbling over all of her words.

"So, what? You're with him because people think you should be?" he asked her, frowning and eyeing her. "That doesn't seem like you."

"Well, we've only known each other a day… and you don't know that much about me, and yes," she said, flapping her arms and crossing them across her chest.

"Does your mom know you're here?" he asked, suddenly realizing this extreme flaw in the logic of the situation.

"No, she thinks I'm at a prayer rally in Hartford," Rory said guiltily.

"I guess that I wouldn't exactly be her ideal boyfriend," he said, his eyes downcast.

"It's just… she likes Dean, and she wanted me to be with him… and no, I don't think so," she said, trying not to offend him.

"Well, then I guess Dean works as a good decoy," he said with a smirk, and one of his hands reached over the table again, palm up as an offering to her. There was still something that told her that this wasn't finished yet, but for the moment, she would try to enjoy it until the explosion occurred.

"Yeah… decoy," she said, smiling at him and putting her hand in his, grasping it firmly.

Just as they were gazing and she was debating on another conversation topic, the pancakes were delivered. Neither of them ate for a few minutes, not wanting to let each other's hands go. Finally Rory took her hand out of his, hesitating, before grabbing her fork and digging into the pancakes. Even with their eating, their eyes were glued to one another's.

When they were finished, their hands intertwined again and they watched each other for a few minutes, before the waiter came and took their plates away, lying the bill down on the table.

"Right, let's go," Jess said, grabbing the bill and reaching for her wallet.

"Here," Rory said, reaching for her own wallet and handing him a few bills.

"No," he said with a smirk and went to pay the bill. He then returned to the table and put the tip on it. "Come on." He nodded towards the door and placed his hands in his pockets.

Rory nodded, watching him closely and rising when he suggested their leaving. She smiled at him and followed when he moved into the streets.

"So… you still don't like the subway?" he asked her with a smirk.

"It's fine… the subway's fine," she corrected.

"Okay," he said, then grabbed her hand and led her to the nearest subway entrance.

The train ride was made in silence, but their hands had already joined together again. He led her out of the train again and directly to the entrance of a Museum. She looked at him with a small smile, shock and excitement ran through her at the idea of seeing it, especially the idea of seeing it with him.

As they entered, he again forced her not to pay and paid the entire 'donation' himself, which was rather extreme, before proceeding to show her around. It was obvious that this was a pastime of his, as he knew pretty much every single inch of the ground. The entire trip took over three hours, which was perfectly fine with her. By the end of the trip, they were both doing the 'goofy' smile and Rory was almost skipping.

"So, you up for another trip?" Jess asked.

"Yeah, I'm here until eight," she said with a smile.

"Good, come on," he said, taking her hand again and diving, yet again, into a subway station.

The train took a few minutes to arrive and the two of them kissed each other breathless while it did. When they got in, there was only one seat left. Jess took it and sat Rory down on his lap. The make-out session then continued. One good thing about New York, she decided, was that no one gave a damn about two teenagers crawling over each other in the middle of a very, very public place.

When they got to their stop, Jess took her hand again and bumped her off him, then led her above ground to one of the largest buildings on the block. He took her inside and her mind was instantly blown by the amount of books that were on the shelves. Jess stopped to allow her to take it all in.

"You like it?" Jess asked, weaving their fingers together again.

"Wow," Rory said, pulling him along for once as she looked at all the covers. The best thing about the books were that most of them were older, this wasn't just some new bookstore, it was antiques, collector's books as well as modern ones.

"I take that as a 'yes'," he said, letting her hand go so that she could examine all the books.

With the sheer enormity of the shelves, it took them almost four hours to look through it all. By the end of it, Rory had a stack of about fifty books and was attempting to sort through them all. Jess had his own little stack, which he hauled over to her.

"What're you doing?" he asked her as she was making different piles.

"I'm sorting," she told him, debating over one of the books she held in her hands.

"Don't bother, just get them all," he told her with a shrug.

"I don't have money for all of these!" she told him, looking at him with wide eyes.

"It's alright, I'll pay for them," he told her with a shrug.

"You can't buy all of these! Besides, I can't get them home," she said, after realizing that he was serious.

"It's alright, I can buy them… and you can just take them home in trips," he told her, nodding towards the pile.

"Are you sure?" she asked him, her eyes blindingly wide.

"Yeah, come on," he said with his smirk and helped her haul the books over to the register.

"Ah, Mr. Mariano," the clerk said, and then looked at the girl, the stack of books and back to Jess again. "Quite the load you have here, but don't you have enough already?"

"Hey, yeah, this is Rory, she's… uh," he broke off, not really knowing what to call her.

"I'm his friend," Rory said, holding out her hand out to the clerk and shaking his.

"Friend?" the clerk said, looking between them.

"Yeah, friend," Jess said, his body jerked up and a hint of anger in his voice. "Just, ring them up."

"Sure, Jess," the guy said, dropping the topic.

"Jess?" Rory asked, noticing the change in his stature.

"Let's go," Jess said, handing the guy a rather large amount of money.

"Bye, Jess," the clerk said, bagging the last few books.

"Jess, please-," Rory started, but he shook his head and grabbed most of the books. There were about ten bags, he grabbed four in each hand and started towards the exit.

"Come on," he said, practically marching and not bothering to wait for her.

"Jess, wait, I need to talk to you," Rory said, grabbing the two bags of books and racing after him.

"Rory, let's just… get home," he told her, frustration obvious on his body.

"Okay," she said, her eyes were wide and begging with him not to be angry with her. He took one look at her and they entered into the subway again.

The trip home was made in silence. There was only one seat again, but he let her take it, standing beside her. When they arrived at his station, he picked up the bags again and led her to his house.

Rory was about to bring up the fact that he was hauling almost one hundred pounds of books, but she let it go. He didn't seem to be flinching under the weight. When they got to his apartment, she raced forward and held open the door for him. He stopped for a second, giving her a look before walking into the apartment building and to the stairs.

"Are you sure you don't want to take the elevator?" she asked him, stopping him before he got to the stairwell.

"Yes, that thing is a deathtrap," he said, his voice was snapping, but a smile actually snuck onto his face.

"Here, let me get the door," she said, opening the stairwell and holding the door for him.

Jess nodded, his face going back to passive, and then pushed past her and started up the stairs. Rory slid behind him, watching him in amazement as he made the trip. Fifteen floors, carrying one hundred pounds, and he didn't even break a sweat. Her mind started debating what it was he did that kept him so fit, maybe he dragged books home all the time? When they got to the top floor, she pushed past him again and opened the door, then followed him to his suite, where he put the bags down and unlocked the apartment.

"Aren't those heavy?" Rory asked him, motioning towards the bags.

"It's okay," he told her, picking them back up again and hauling them inside, where he placed them on one of the only places that wasn't slathered with his, or, she guessed, his mother's clothes. As he placed them down, he continued to not look at her, avoiding her completely as he shuffled into the kitchen.

"Jess, I'm sorry, I just… I don't know what to call… this," she told him, concerned and trying to make it better.

"Whatever," he told her, evading the topic like he seemed to do all the time.

"Please, look at me!" she told him, grabbing one of his hands and forcing him to turn to her.

"What?" he yelled at her and she dropped his hand, jerking away. "Maybe someone else would go for this… but I'm not going to play second. If you want me, then I want you and only you… not this other dick and not to be someone that you have to hide."

"I know, I just… I don't know what to do," Rory said, feeling her fragile relationship with him crumbling around the corners.

"Ditch him, Rory, and tell your mom about me," he told her, putting a hand on the side of her face.

"I can't… I just… I can't," she told him, begging him to understand. She put a hand over his on her cheek.

"Why?" he demanded sternly.

"Because, Jess… I'm going to Harvard, I'm going to Chilton, I'm dating a 'perfect' guy, and… you're… well," she said, looking around.

"Yeah, I'm white trash," he muttered, his hand falling off her cheek and to his side.

"You're not white trash, you're… you're smart and you read and you're… well, you're good looking and… and… please understand that she'd never understand. If I have Dean… at least then she won't follow me… because then I'd never be allowed here again, or she'd follow me… and I don't want her to follow me, because I want to be here with you, alone," she told him grabbing one of his hands again.

"Is that it?" he asked her, not yanking away.

"Yes," she told him, pulling on his hand to try to get her point across.

Jess nodded, looking back up at her again. "Okay," he said, pulling her to him and kissing her softly.

"Do you want something for dinner? We kinda skipped lunch," he asked her, a small smirk on his lips.

"Sure, dinner would be good," she replied, smiling hopefully and thankfully that he understood, or at least that he was trying to.

"Great, what do you like?" he asked her, dragging out what looked like an antique phone book.

"Uh… anything, what do you like?" she asked him, suddenly curious as to what his eating habits were. His kitchen looked like hers, and that probably meant that he ordered in a lot, which probably meant that he knew all the good places.

"How about Chinese?" he asked her, looking at her over his shoulder.

"Sure," she said with a smile, and then checked the time. She still had two hours to catch the bus so she could be home before her mother started to ask questions. Two hours would be enough time for dinner and to get to the bus stop.

After they ordered, they moved back into Jess's room, which he cleaned while she went into the washroom. There was now an obvious trail to the bed. When she got into his room, though, she learnt that said bed was actually a futon. They both sat down and he pulled her to him again. Almost instantly they dissolved into kisses with hands wandering everywhere.

Half an hour later, they were shocked apart by the sound of a knock on the door. The two of them rose together and stumbled to the door. Jess opened it to the deliveryman and grabbed the food. He tossed a couple of bills at him while he turned back to Rory and slammed the door shut. They then proceeded to the table, where they both sat on the same chair.

"This is going to be interesting," he said with a smirk, hauling the food onto the table.

"Yup," Rory said, kissing him quickly and they started sorting the food. Fortunately for him, seeing as how he had no idea if there were any forks in the kitchen, the restaurant had given them two plastic forks.

The dinner past quickly and soon they were back to stumbling down the stairs in an effort to get Rory to the bus station on time to get home. Fortunately, they didn't have to go on the subway, so they were able to run cheerfully through the streets, almost getting hit three or four times with their distraction in each other.

When they finally got to the bus stop, they both stumbled onto the bus and Jess shoved the fare into the driver's hands and crawled into the back with Rory. He broke the making out for a second to allow them to catch their breath.

"Rory, are you my girlfriend?" he asked her, kissing her neck.

"Yeah," she whispered to him, running her hands through his hair and making a mess out of the carefully-gelled structure.

"Good," he told her with a smile, and they proceeded to continue kissing her until they couldn't breathe anymore.

The two hours of the drive past in no time, at least she didn't have to read old newspapers and the manual for driving buses again. The thought was fleeting. Instead she was completely enthralled by Jess. He was driving her insane. When they reached the Hartford stop, she had to switch buses to take the bus back to Stars Hollow, and he had to go back to New York.

"Rory," he said, his voice seeming lower, gruffer.

"Yeah?" she asked, noticing the same gruffness in her voice.

"I-I… Y'know, I don't know. How about I come out here next week?" he asked her, kissing her softly again.

"Sure," she said, and he turned away to go back onto the bus. She suddenly felt the need to tell him something important. "Jess, wait!"

"Yeah?" he asked, turning around to face her again, a little bit of, for lack of better word, hope shining in his eyes.

"I-I… well… I'll meet you here. Call me, okay?" she asked him, smiling sadly at her inability to convey what she was feeling at that moment.

"Yeah, I'll call you," he told her, moving towards her once more and kissing her breathless before running back to catch the bus as it was about to leave.

Rory followed suit, moving to the Stars Hollow bus that had just arrived. She watched the New York bus until she couldn't make out Jess's face in the back window anymore and walked into her bus. It was only then that she realized that she'd left all of her books at Jess's house. She sighed, frustrated with herself and his ability to drive all other thoughts from her mind.

At the end of the half an hour bus trip, she hopped off to find Lane hiding behind a park bench. Rory frowned and looked around for why she would be hiding; she found it in the shape of a jeep parked by Luke's. Ever-so-stealthily, she crept off in such a way that she wasn't in view of the diner and Lane rushed to her side.

"Rory, thank God you're home!" she said, and hugged her friend closely. "She almost caught me, she came to the store!"

"Oh my God, what happened?" Rory asked, concern lacing her voice.

"I told Mama that it was no one and I distracted her until she went away," Lane told her, the panic of the incident still obvious in her voice.

"But she didn't find out?" Rory asked, suddenly finding that, if she wasn't able to see Jess, she would probably freak out.

For some reason, in two days, Jess had managed to do what Dean hadn't been able to do in three months. She really cared for him, and there was even the possibility of loving him. She cringed away from the word, however, thanks to the breakup between her and Dean over it.

"No, we got away," Lane told her, and then grabbed onto Rory's hands again. "Tell me, 'everything'."

Rory felt a huge amount of relief at the idea of Lane having gotten away and the two of them skulked off so that her mother wouldn't be able to see them as they made her way back to her house.

"Well, I got there and I had to go to his house to get him, and he was still sleeping… and he was in his boxers-," Rory began, but was abruptly cut off by a gasp from her friend.

"He was naked?!" Lane demanded.

"No, not naked… just… not fully clothed," Rory said, blushing a little bit and attempting to steer clear of the topic.

"Oh my God, that's amazing! Okay, so what did you do?" she demanded.

"We went out to breakfast and he took me to the Museum of Natural History… and then he took me to a bookstore and bought me books… and then we went back to his house and ate dinner, then he drove back here with me," Rory told her, smiling at the very memory of the day, even with the fight.

"What happened about Dean?" Lane asked with concern laced into her voice.

"He freaked out, but he understands and… well, we're okay. And Lane, I think I love him," she finished quickly, getting the words out as fast as she possibly could.

"You love him?!" Lane shrieked, and Rory made sure that no one was around. Seeing as how they were wandering on the outside of town, to avoid her mother, she was fairly certain that no one heard her, or at least they didn't know who was talking, or what about.

"Shh!" Rory hissed, continuing to check. "Yeah… I think I love him."

"But it's only been two days!" Lane reminded, but her happiness was still firm.

"I know… but I don't know what else to call it," she said, confused at her own emotions.

"What are you going to do with Dean?" Lane asked.

"I don't know, but Jess and I agreed that he's a good decoy, so that mom doesn't follow me to New York," Rory said with a very firm nod.

"So he's okay with you dating someone else?" Lane asked. It was obvious she was a bit disgusted with the idea.

"My mom wouldn't like him, Lane… I know she wouldn't. At least with Dean there, I can date Jess without people constantly questioning me," she said, very firmly gazing into her friend's eyes.

"Alright, okay, so you're dating two guys. It's a love triangle!" Lane said, again excited.

"I know," Rory said, although she wasn't at all happy about being in a love triangle. She wanted one guy, and she was pretty sure he was Jess.

When they got to her house, she snuck forward and saw her mother wasn't home yet. Sighing with relief, her and Lane made it onto the front porch.

"Thank you," Rory said, hugging her friend tightly and smiling before unlocking the door and saying her goodbyes. There was one more outburst about a love triangle, which Rory quickly shushed, scared of the neighbours, which was thanks to Babette living right next door.

"Goodnight!" Rory half-whispered. Lane then disappeared back into the bushes, so that she could get home without giving her mother notice about her absence.

When Rory trailed back into her room, the first thing she did was change into her PJs and hide the clothes so that her mother wouldn't find them before she washed them. For some reason, she was almost positive that New York had its own specific smell and that her mother would probably recognize it.

Sighing, she sat back down on her bed and looked out of the window. When headlights appeared on the street, she turned off her lights and crawled into bed. A few minutes later she heard her mother enter her room, but she pretended to be asleep and ignored her. She was too excited and terrified of this thing with Jess to talk to her mother. She would probably just spill everything and ruin it all.

Thankfully she left and Rory shuffled so that she was on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Now she wished that she had one of those books, maybe they would at least get her mind off of him. Unfortunately, thanks to her mind being firmly locked on him all day, they'd both forgotten them. Sighing, she closed her eyes and felt sleep tugging on the edge of her consciousness. Giving into it, she found that she couldn't escape Jess in her sleep either, as he was right there in her dreams.

The next morning she woke up with a start and heard her mom shuffling about outside her room again. She looked over at the clock to see the time, six o'clock. Not her ideal time to be awake. Sighing, she crawled out of her bed as quietly as possible and opened her door a crack to see her mom sitting at the table, drinking coffee, obviously waiting for her to get out. Taking a breath and closing her eyes, she silently got dressed and hopped out her window again.

"Are you really going to do this all summer?" she asked herself, and then she saw Dean driving up, and decided that it the answer to that question was a definite 'yes'. Dashing away, she managed to scoot into the bush behind her house just as Dean got to the porch. With more than a little bit of guilt, she made her way to Lane's house. At least she had 'one' person she could talk to.


	4. Don't Say A Word

**A/N: **I'm sorry to anyone who got a notification yesterday, or perhaps even read the Chapter Four that was here for a few hours. I decided that I wanted to take the story in a different direction, and thus, have revised my previous Chapter Four into this. Hope you enjoy it.

By some stroke of luck, summer had come and gone without incident. She and Lane had avoided the entire town's eyes and ears on their constant coverings for Rory's trips out to New York and Hartford to meet Jess. The tradition was always the same. Rory would slip out of the window in her room if she heard her mother was in the kitchen, or if she was still awake during the night, and she would slip out the back door if her mother was in a different part of the house.

Occasionally she'd be seen by Babette going out the back door, and every so often she'd meet her mother on the way out of the house, but the suspicions had never actually bloomed into anything solid. Her luck had run out last week when Babette caught her sneaking out of the window and, unknown to Rory, told her mother. So when the clock struck ten that evening and she heard her mother in the house, she'd taken off out the window only to find her mom waiting for her on the porch.

That had been over half an hour ago, and since then, the silence in the kitchen had been numbing. She'd been half-catatonic with her guilt the entire time, but her mother didn't seem to want to break the silence. Rory was on a different wavelength, though, and after so many silent moments with Jess, decided that she didn't want to have the same silence with her mother.

"Mom, I-," Rory started, but she was cut off quickly by her mother, with a sharp hand in her direction.

"No, don't. Is this what's been going on? Is this why I haven't been seeing you at all lately?" Lorelei asked, although she knew the answer to both the questions.

"Mom, I'm sorry, but-," Rory attempted to begin again, but she was cut off with, yet another, shushing motion.

"Stop it! Rory, are you at least using protection?" Lorelei demanded, and from the sound of it, getting the complete wrong idea.

"Huh?" Rory asked, stunned and confused.

"You and Dean?" she asked, as though it should have been completely obvious.

"Wait, you think that I'm…?" Rory asked, thinking about the situation and biting her lip a little bit.

"Well, aren't you?" Lorelei demanded, and Rory looked away, pondering the accusation.

"We've been careful," Rory said, almost unable to say the words. In a way, it was unbelievable that she was continuing to tell lies, and now she was implicating Dean in the process.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" Lorelei shouted at her, and Rory cringed away from her, hurt showing on her face.

"I'm sorry…" she said, more tears falling down her face.

"How long has it been going on?" Lorelei demanded again, towering over her sitting daughter.

"I-I don't remember," Rory replied, wiping the tears forcefully from her eyes.

"What do you mean you don't remember?" Lorelei asked, standing in front of her with her hands on her hips.

"I don't remember… it wasn't as though I wrote it down," she muttered, suddenly feeling that rebellious streak that had been growing since she'd started seeing Jess.

"Wrote it down?! Rory, this is supposed to be the most magical moment of your life!" Lorelei stated, almost yelled.

"I'm leaving," Rory told her, standing up and storming over to the door.

"No you're not, we're not finished yet!" Lorelei shouted, rushing after her daughter to the door.

"Unless you're planning on hurting me, I'm not staying. It's none of your business what I do with… Dean," Rory said, the strong voice at the beginning dwindling off when it came to her declaration of independence involving 'Dean'.

"Yes it is my business. You're not even eighteen, Rory! You have so much ahead of you, getting pregnant is going to ruin everything we've worked for! Please, don't be me. I made those mistakes so that you wouldn't," Lorelei begged.

"If you want me to open up to you... mom then leave me alone," Rory hissed, opening the door and slamming it on her way out.

After she got outside and heard the slamming of the door, she froze. What the hell was she doing? Shaking her head, she stepped down the porch and started running. Tears were streaming down her face and she was desperately attempting to keep pushing herself until she got to the bus station.

When she finally sat down, she put her face in her hands and just cried for a good ten minutes. She'd never really gotten in a fight with her mother, or at least not like this. She'd have to tell her soon… but that would hurt her so much; especially now after what her mother thought that she'd been doing for the past few months.

"Hey, Rory," said a voice to her left. The voice made every muscle in her body tense up, as she was unprepared for the confrontation that would come with his arrival.

"Dean… hi," Rory said, her voice still clogged with tears. She glanced up at him for a second and then diverted her eyes back to the ground.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sitting down beside her. He put a hand on her back, and even the hand made her want to run away. Still, to preserve some sort of normalcy within their relationship, she allowed him to do it.

"Yeah, I just got in a little bit of a fight with my mom," she said, closing her eyes and thinking about the fight itself. There were only a few words exchanged, but she felt as though she should start packing her bags.

"What's happened?" he asked her, and she suddenly realized how awkward this was.

"Nothing, it's nothing," she said, pulling, yet another, 'Jess'.

"Come on, Rory, it can't be nothing if you two were fighting about it," he said, shaking his head and pulling his hand back. He clasped them in front of him and looked over at her from beneath his hair. Looking at him, she realized that she was missing seeing eyes without hair blocking them. In fact, she was missing gelled hair to run her hands through and missed kissing the lips beneath the hair, maybe that's why she was taking the late-night bus into New York to see him. After all, if she really needed someone to talk to, she could have just gone to Lane.

"Rory?" Dean asked, hoping to capture her attention again.

"Huh?" she asked, realizing that she'd completely spaced out.

"What's going on? I haven't seen you at all this summer, and you've been fighting with everyone. No one sees you anymore. You're always in Hartford at prayer rallies and meeting with school friends. You don't spend any time with your 'boyfriend' anymore," he told her, frustration obvious in every movement.

Despite herself, she couldn't help but smile at his comment. The tears ruined the look so she turned away from him, thinking that he probably wouldn't understand her grinning at his blatant attempt to tell her that she'd been negligent.

"I'm sorry, Dean… it's just, these things are important to Lane, and I don't want to hurt her," she said. She'd been getting so good at these lies that the sincerity in her voice almost sounded real and she, herself, could barely tell that she was lying.

"Rory, what about me? What about us?" he asked her, confusion and desperation on his face.

"Tomorrow, we can spend the day together tomorrow, okay?" she asked, attempting to appease him.

"Are you sure you don't have another prayer rally or paper meeting to go to?" he asked her, his voice taunting and hurt.

"Look, I know that I've been gone a lot lately, but… I'm going to stay home this week. School's starting next week so I'll stay and we can go out all week, okay?" she half-begged him, not sure why she was trying so hard to keep the relationship alive. Fortunately for her reasoning skills, the bus came around the corner. She stood up and smiled down at Dean.

"Alright," he said, standing up a few seconds after her, when she smiled at him.

When the bus arrived, Rory saw that it was her favorite bus driver. She was getting to know them fairly well thanks to her late night and early morning trips. There were only a few different bus drivers who actually took those routes. That meant that she knew them all by name.

"Hey, Rory, who's this?" said the man, looking at Dean curiously. He was frowning a little bit, as though attempting to connect this guy to Jess, who he'd been accustomed to see her making out with at regular intervals.

"Uh… this is Dean, he's my boyfriend," she said, hopping into the bus and paying the fee.

"Boyfriend, but what about-," he began but she turned back to him and put a finger across her lips.

"What about what?" Dean asked.

"Nothing," Rory said, turning back to him with a smile, which she hoped looked sincere enough and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Bye!"

She then turned back to the bus driver, who gave her a look that said he didn't approve, before nodding at Dean and closing the door. Rory didn't move back to the bus, where she normally perched, but looked at the bus driver in hopes of explaining.

"Are you alright?" he asked her, noting the tears streaking down her face.

"Look, that probably looked really bad, but Jess and I are… we're close. Dean… he's just there so my mother doesn't ask," she said, guiltily wringing her hands and tugging on her skirt, which was short again.

"Your mother doesn't know?" he bus driver asked, frowning at her out of the corner of his eye.

"I want Jess, but she doesn't," she said, leaning back against the railing and crossing her arms across her chest so that she'd stop fidgeting.

"Ah, so it's a family feud, is that why…?" he asked, motioning with one of his hands to his face, as though to show tears.

"Yeah… she saw me sneaking out," she told him, her voice almost dead.

"Sneaking?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "You don't look like the type of girl to be sneaking…"

"I wouldn't be, but I don't want her to find out… because then I won't be allowed to see him… and I… I love him," she said, the last part was very, very quiet.

"Lying is no way to get through life, Rory. That's how I ended up breaking it off with my wife… You should tell them," he said with a look.

"Yeah, I know… can I have your manual?" she asked him, and he handed her his bus manual at the next bus stop, and the conversation was officially over.

The words were constantly getting blurred by tears that kept gathering in her eyes. She was brushing them away as quickly as she could, but they weren't behaving. With a sigh, she closed the book and took to staring out the window. By the time she reached New York, she was happy just to get out of the repressive silence that had been the ride. Maybe with Jess she'd be able to forget about the terrible day she'd had.

An hour ago, Jess probably would have been right there to catch her when she got off, but she was very, very late. Sighing, she moved carefully into the streets. She looked around, hoping to avoid the low-lives of New York. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a shadow moving around the building. Freaking out a little bit, she ran down the nearest subway stairs, catching the emptiest train she could find to Washington Square Park.

She glanced nervously around the train, making sure no one was coming towards her. The coast appeared to be clear. Despite her apparent 'safety', her breathing was still irregular and her hands kept on attempting to pull her short skirt down and tugging her shirt up. The clothes had been worn in the event of her and Jess going to a party, which would probably be a completely ruined plan now.

The second that she reached the stop, she got out of the train and looked around. Making sure that no one was around. The coast appeared clear, so she walked very, very quickly to the stairs entering the city. She forgot her jacket in the fight with her mother, so the cold air hit her harder than she was expecting. Self consciously, she wrapped her arms around her waist and quickened her pace again.

She knew how to spot Jess's place from miles around. It had gotten easier every time she'd accidentally come an hour early and had to find her own way to his house. Now, however, her body was on autopilot as her mind was scanning every shadow and second-guessing every noise. Turning a corner, she saw Jess's building and took the last stretch at a run. When she got inside, she saw another shadow just outside the door and bolted to the stairs. For the first five floors she continued her pace, running as fast as she possibly could.

After she finally discovered that there was no one there, she sighed, angry with herself, and stormed up the last ten stories. At the fifteenth floor, she realized that she wasn't panting anymore. The constant walking up and down had gotten her body into shape, and she was grateful for it. The heels that she'd taken to wearing also helped with her balance. In the past two months, she'd come to understand why Jess was as strong as he was.

Walking the last few steps to Jess's apartment, she sighed and reached out a hand hesitantly. Her hand hovered inches away from the door and she bit her lip again. Finally she gained up her courage and knocked. There was shouting from inside and the sound of something being shoved against a wall. She frowned and backed up a few paces as she felt the vibrations of something moving to the door. It was yanked open by a fairly large, very drunk man.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked, eyeing her and leering.

"Uh… is Jess here?" she asked him, looking past the man and attempting to find her boyfriend.

"Jess? What the hell are you doing with Jess, Sweetheart?" he asked her, frowning as though she'd just insulted his manliness.

The word, "Move," was spoken before the large man was shoved aside. Jess stood behind him with an ice pack to his head, which was bleeding. When she saw him, she forgot all about the big man and had went directly into 'concerned girlfriend' mode, checking to make sure that the injury, or injuries, weren't too bad.

"No time," he told her, then grabbed her hand and started running down the hallway.

"What's going on?" she asked, not used to having to run away from things. Normally Jess took fights whenever he could get them, and she'd just gotten used to it.

"I'll tell you in a minute, save your breath," he told her as he yanked her into the stairwell.

Seconds after their departure, she could hear footsteps thundering down the stairs. It meant that, whoever that guy was, he was giving chase. Rory was scared, she didn't know if she needed to be, but she could feel the fear pouring off of Jess and it scared her too.

When they hit the bottom floor, which Rory was immensely glad about, Jess didn't stop. Somewhere along the way he'd lost his ice pack, but he kept running all the way into the streets and down to Washington Square Park. Once there, he pulled them both under some bushes and waited, occasionally looking over his shoulder.

"Jess?" she asked in a whisper.

"He's my step-dad," he told her under his breath, and looked over his shoulder again, as if just talking about him would bring him to them.

"I didn't know you had one," she said, and it occurred to her that she didn't really know anything about him. The only thing that he'd let out in the past few months was that he lived with his mother and that her name was Liz.

"He's not exactly someone I brag about," he told her with a shrug as he pulled out a cigarette and flicked it between his fingers.

"That's not going to help," she told him, glaring at the smoke. He knew that she didn't like it, and normally he wouldn't have even pulled one out in front of her, but it was obvious he was under stress.

"It'll help just fine," he told her, half glaring at her himself as he lit it up and took a drag then threw it out again. "No, your right, it's not going to help." At first she was a bit stunned by his admission, until she noticed the hulking man coming directly towards them. He'd seen the smoke randomly rising from a bush.

"Jess?" she whispered to him, but he just grabbed her hand and watched the man continue to come closer. When it was obvious that they'd been spotted, he stood up. Rory followed him, a little slower and more cautious.

"Go back home, Brent. We don't want you here," Jess hissed at him, and let her hand go. There was a slight tremor to his body, but other than that, no way to tell that he wasn't completely confident in his claims.

"Yeah, right, that's why your mother keeps bringing me back all the time, huh?" 'Brent' demanded and laughed a little bit.

"She takes you back because you beat her if she doesn't, and she keeps you because you'll kill her if she tells you to go to hell. I don't think that you can kill me, so 'Fuck off'," Jess stated, his voice even and his body ready for the attack that was, almost unquestionably, headed his way.

Naturally, the man was not happy at being told these nasty words, so he lunged. Jess was ready for it and, thanks to his smaller size, ducked out of the way of the lunge. One of his arms wrapped around the guy's waist, making sure that he wasn't getting away that easily, and the other one proceeded to punch him in the head multiple times.

Rory had seen Jess fight, but she'd never seen him fight someone when it was actually dangerous. Mostly of the time it had just been defending her 'honor' when someone would mistake her for a prostitute, which had happened quite often thanks to her clothes. This fight, however, was stunning. She backed up after the first hit was thrown and her back hit a tree a few meters away. Watching in silence, she observed Jess as he took the man, who was almost a full foot taller than him, down to the ground and beat him senseless.

"Let's go," he told her, grabbing her hand and running, this time back to the apartment. "I have to check on Liz, and then we can go."

"Where?" she asked him, wondering if they were still going to go to that party.

"Somewhere, anywhere. Just, away from here," he told her as they got to the building. He swung open the doors and ran to the stairwell. By this time, the run up the stairs was tiring. Her body was exhausted. It had already run these stairs twice and the adrenaline leaving her system told her that it didn't want to run them again.

"Okay," she told him at his declaration, even though it sounded crazy. Could she actually do that? Uproot herself and just… leave with him?

She didn't really get to think about it, though, as he kept running until he got to the apartment. His mother was crumpled on the ground, but she was still conscious, attempting to get to the door.

"Jess?" she asked when she saw him come in, and gave Rory a look.

"Liz? Are you okay?" Jess asked, letting go of Rory's hand so he could crouch beside his mother.

"Where's Brent? What the hell did you do to Brent?" his mother demanded, tears of anger rolling down her cheeks.

"Nothing, Liz… he attacked me, so I defended myself," Jess told her, but his voice was dead, no emotion what so ever.

"Bullshit, he didn't attack you. You attacked him, you always attack them!" she accused as she attempted to get to her feet.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I did," Jess said in a bare whisper, before turning and starting outside again.

Rory didn't bother to ask questions, she just followed him as he walked down the stairs, very slowly. She grabbed his hand to comfort him and he looked over at her with eyes that she didn't really like. They were eyes that were attempting to hide everything that had happened today, eyes that didn't want to tell anyone anything, because it just hurt too much.

"It's okay, Jess," she told him, attempting a smile.

"How can you say that?" he asked her, shaking his head. "That's my mother in there, Rory, my 'mother'."

"I know," she admitted and looked down to the ground, keeping a firm hold of his hand. "But your mother doesn't always know what's best."

"Yeah, I know that from experience," he muttered, more to himself than to her.

"How long has… he been around?" she asked.

"Brent? Usually she dates them at least three months before she marries them," he said with a shrug. "I think he's been around about five, one of the longer lasting relationships."

"Oh," Rory replied. She could hear the waves of bitterness pouring off of him, and she realized that she would have never heard about this if she hadn't actually seen it with her own eyes. "Hey Jess?"

"Yeah?" he asked her, looking at her from beneath his hair, which was still firmly gelled into place. She'd seen him gel his hair once, it was a very, very long process.

"Take me to your school," she requested, although her voice didn't really leave much for argument.

"Okay," he said with a nod, and when they hit the bottom floor, he started walking in the opposite direction from Washington Square Park.

He didn't catch the subway, although she noted that they easily could have, to get to their destination. Instead, they walked a full half an hour, until it was almost three in the morning, and got there as most of the junkies had already cleared out, or passed out.

"This is it," he told her, showing her a campus that looked like it had seen better days. It was much like all the schools that she'd heard about in the papers, but never really believed existed. It was more of a prison than a school. The entire area was fenced in, there was almost no room at all to wonder around, and a sign on the gate stated that it was a closed campus, and that anyone wanting to get had to sign into the office.

"Wow," Rory breathed, not quite sure what to make of it all. Why was Jess going to a school like this when he was so smart?

"Yeah… there're metal detectors just inside and they run you up and down with a wand before you get into class. Some kid always gets shot, every year, so they keep upping security," he told her, looking from his school to her and then back again.

"It's so…" she began, trying to find the right words.

"Trashy?" he suggested with a shrug, and laced his fingers into the fence surrounding the property.

"…not you," she finished, finally looking from the school back to him again.

"I've gone here all my life," he told her with another shrug, and leaned his shoulder against the fence. He pulled her against him and she smiled up at him, although there was a touch of sadness around the corners. Going here probably explained how he learnt all the tricks he did, including how to take on guys who were almost twice his size.

"Do you fight a lot in school?" she asked him, leaning against him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Only when I need to," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her upper back.

"Hmm," Rory replied and kissed him. The kiss was something that she'd never really had with him before, not passionate, but sweet, warm. She hesitated to even think it, but it was almost loving. The kiss was saying what neither of them would dare.

"Come on, let's get out of here," he told her when they broke the kiss, and he led her away from his school.

"Where?" she asked him again. The one thing that she noticed set them apart most was their inclination of direction. She knew where she was going at all times, but he seemed like he was still trying to find himself. He never knew exactly where he was going, like there was a plan, but there were just too many ways to go about it.

"Let's go to Hartford, get out of this hellhole," he suggested, actually coming up with a place to go. It was more than he'd done on almost all of their other interactions.

"Okay," she said with a smile and they started off towards the bus depot. It was a lot nearer thanks to their half an hour of walking. Normally she would have to take the subway to get there, but Jess knew shorter ways on foot. He didn't seem to want to take the subway.

"Now we wait," he muttered, checking the times and seeing that the next bus didn't come for another hour or at least a bus that was headed to Connecticut. Somewhere in her mind she wondered if her mother was worried about her, but it was a fleeting thought. Jess was here, and he'd already proved that he wasn't going to let anyone hurt her.

"Is your mom going to be alright?" she asked him curiously, wondering about the blond-haired woman they'd seen at his apartment.

"Yeah, she'll be fine," he said, sitting down on one of the benches that were provided.

"I want you to tell me about your life," she told him, sitting down beside him and taking his hand.

"There's not much to tell. I was born, here in New York, and we already lived in the apartment. When I was a few months old, my dad left me and Liz alone. My uncle came to help, but he went back to wherever the hell he's from before I could even walk. Then I went to school," he said with a shrug, and leaned back in his bench.

"What about your mom's boyfriends?" she asked, hesitating with the question.

"Most of them aren't as bad as Brent. Normally they're just drunks, or druggies, and they get her into it, and then they leave her and she goes into withdrawal for a few weeks, promises not to do it again and then finds another one," he told her. If she would have asked him a year ago, she probably would have gotten a more impassioned answer, but this one was just a story. It was just something that happened. There was nothing to be done about it.

"You have an uncle?" she asked him.

"Yeah, but I don't even know what his name is," Jess answered. There was an edge to his voice, one that was telling her to be careful where she stepped because he wasn't up to answering questions all night.

"Alright," she said, stopping her questioning in favor of not getting on his bad side. He'd had a bad night, she could pester him when he didn't have a goose-egg on the back of his neck, or dried blood on the side of his face.

She gave him a smile as she leaned against him, feeling at home when she was with him. One of his arms wrapped around her and she knew that she would be safe, nothing would happen to her when she was with him. With those thoughts, she closed her eyes, happy to be able to just relax with someone, it didn't happen very often. Normally she felt the tensions of having to talk, to make conversation, or to act a certain way, but there was none of that with Jess. You didn't have to talk if you didn't want to, you could dress however you wanted to, and you could do whatever you pleased. Being with him made her feel free from everything, from life, from obligation, it was as though the strings that attached her to the world were gone. It was a dangerous thought and she knew it, but she loved it.

"Rory?" Jess asked, nudging her a little bit. She'd fallen asleep on the bench.

"Huh?" she asked, blinking a little bit and looking around.

"You fell asleep. The bus is here," he told her, smirking.

"Oh, right," she said, but she really didn't feel like moving. Sometime during the past hour, she'd crawled onto his lap and he was holding her tightly against him.

"Don't want to stand up?" he asked her, then proceeded to pick her up and carry her into the bus. The driver smiled at them, although there was still a look to his eyes that told her to be careful.

"Good evening Rory, Jess," the driver said, nodding at them. They were his normal customers at this hour. Not many others would be catching the buses at four in the morning.

"Hey, I'll pay you when we get off, alright?" Jess asked, taking Rory to the back of the bus when the driver nodded his head. He knew that Jess was good for the money, and the look in his eye said that the moment was too amusing to break.

Once they got to the back, Jess sat her back on his lap and wrapped her in his arms again.

"You can go back to sleep, if you want," he told her.

"Mhm," she mumbled, kissing him again and threading her hands through his hair.

The kissing lasted a good half hour. Again, it was the strange kissing from before. Slow and soft, like they were both trying to say something but couldn't. When she was almost positive that there was no way she could keep her eyes open any longer, she put her head on his shoulder and felt her world swim into the blackness of sleep.

When she woke up, the sun was shining brightly through a window onto her. She frowned and looked around, trying to orient herself. There was the sound of someone in the shower in another room, and the décor in the one she was in screamed 'Motel'. So Jess hadn't bothered to wake her up after their trip. She felt beside her and noted that his place on the bed was still warm. Smiling, she snuggled into the covers to wait for him to get back.

When she heard the bathroom door open, she crawled out of the bed and over to Jess, who was already fully dressed and hair-gelled. He smiled at her and she kissed him, still feeling tired.

"G'morning," she murmured, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning against him.

"Afternoon," he told her and walked her back to the bed, where he sat her down. "Is your mom…?"

"She's going to kill me," Rory admitted with a small, goofy smile, like it didn't matter.

"We need to get you home," he told her, kissing her again and grabbing his jacket. "Wait here, I'm going to go return the keys and then we can go."

"Okay," she said with a nod, although her sleep-fogged mind barely registered what he said. Blearily she got up to go to the washroom and to wash the mascara out from underneath her eyes. Once she was positive that she wasn't going to terrify anyone, she went back into the room to wait for Jess.

He appeared a few seconds after she sat down, so she had to stand back up again. Her legs were sore from all the running that she'd done yesterday, so it was awkward to be walking around in the boots.

"Let's go," he said, offering her a hand, which she took, and walked them out of the room. "The bus station's just a block away."

"Okay," she replied again, not really able to think up anything better to say.

"So, last night was interesting," he started, and she eyed him warily.

"Yeah…" she agreed, waiting to hear his point.

"I'm sorry the first time you saw Liz was when she was like that," he told her honestly. His mother could be a good person, but only if you caught her when she was happily drunk or had been sober for a few days. All other times she was miserable.

"It doesn't matter. She's not you," Rory told him with a smile and leaned against his shoulder.

The rest of the walk was made in a comfortable silence. When they got to the bus stop, the buses were just arriving. At first it looked like Jess was going to go back to New York, but then he turned to look at her.

"I'll ride home with you," he told her, and they went to Rory's normal bus, which took them to Stars Hollow.

"Thanks," she replied and stepped onto the bus. He paid for both of them again and led them to the very back of the bus.

"It's too early for sunlight," Rory whined, hiding her face against his shoulder.

"It's past three in the afternoon," he told her with another smirk.

"Wait… three?" she said, her body suddenly rigid as she remembered her promise to Dean.

"Yeah, why?" he asked, suspicion written over all his features.

"I was supposed to go out to do something with Dean today," she told him, smacking her head lightly against his shoulder.

"Oh well, screw Dean. Seeing as how I'm coming to Stars Hollow anyway, why don't we have that meeting with your mother?" he suggested, and she pulled herself away from his shoulder to give him a look that stated he was insane.

"Jess, you look like you were hit with a ton of bricks last night," she told him, motioning to the bruises.

"Right," he said with a shrug, and sat back in the seat. She knew that she'd offended him. He wanted to be her only boyfriend, he didn't want her to be running around with Dean, but what choice did he have?

"Jess-," she began, but was abruptly cut off.

"It doesn't matter. I know, you're keeping him so that your mom doesn't get suspicious," he remarked angrily, dismissing the issue.

Sighing, she got off his lap and went to sit on the other side, away from him. He didn't understand, as much as he tried. It frustrated her that she had to do this, but she knew that her mother would slaughter her if she knew that her daughter was going to New York every weekend to see a boyfriend that most women would get their daughters vaccinated before allowing them to even talk to.

"Rory?" Jess asked, having stood up to stand over by her. "I'm sorry. I know that you have to do this… I just… I don't like it."

Rory looked up at him, half glaring. She'd sacrificed a lot for this relationship, but she was tired of the lies just as much as he was. She shook her head and turned away from him, trying to keep herself from crying.

"I don't want to be 'the other guy', Rory. You can at least understand that," he asked her, kneeling down in front of her.

Rory looked at him and nodded. She grabbed the collar of his jacket and pulled him up so she could kiss him. He raised himself with her pulling, so that he was half-crouching in front of her. His arms were on either side of her shoulders, bracing him so that he could lean over her. They were attracting quite a bit of attention, especially when she stood up with him and they started kissing passionately, none of the slow kisses of the night before, although the feelings that were behind those were definitely there as well.

"Are we okay?" he asked her when they broke apart, and she nodded at him, placing her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arms around his waist. He did the same, turned them around, and sat with her on top of him.

They stayed like that for the rest of the trip, not talking or kissing, just sitting and enjoying each other's presence. When Stars Hollow finally came around the corner, they broke apart, but continued to hold hands. As the stop arrived, she stood up and walked them to the front of the bus. Before they got out, she looked around, making sure that no one was there. She then proceeded to pull him off the bus and yank him into the bushes surrounding the town, the same ones that she and Lane had taken months previously on her first time back from New York.

"You could swear that I was dangerous," he muttered as he got hit in the face with a plant of some sort.

"I just… don't want them finding out yet," she told him, and took him around the back alleys until she reached her house.

"So that's your place?" Jess asked. He was still angry about being smacked in the face with a plant.

"Yup," she said with a nod, and kissed him. "I have to go."

"I know… I'll see you later," he told her, kissing her again before taking off into the trees.

Rory watched him for a few seconds, until he disappeared, and then walked back to the house. A quick snatch-look to the driveway told her that her mother wasn't home. Her car, the one that Dean had made for her, was sitting there. It was shiny and new… but she hadn't used it since she'd first gotten it and taken it out with him.

She crawled inside and into her room, where she sat on her bed with the phone in her lap. After a few minutes of this, she put the phone on her bed and grabbed a book. Hours later, her mother came in and marched right into her room.

"Where the hell did you go last night?" she half-screamed at her. It looked like she'd been up all night.

"Out," Rory told her, not looking up from the book.

"Out where, Rory? No one knew where the hell you were. Dean didn't, Lane didn't. Dean said he saw you getting on a bus," Lorelei accused her. Her eyes were blazing with anger.

"Yeah, so?" Rory asked with a shrug, looking up from her book to glare at her mother.

"So? Rory, what are you doing? No one knows where you are anymore, you're always gone and no one can ever find you. Where do you keep going?" she demanded. Obviously this question had been attacking her all night.

"What does it matter? I keep coming back," Rory replied with another shrug and went back to her book.

"Rory!" her mother shouted as she grabbed the book and threw it across the room.

Rory was about to start screaming back when the phone rang. She picked it up instinctively, not even noticing it, and pressed the 'talk' button.

"Hello?" she asked, her voice tinted with anger.

"Hey," Jess's voice said from the other line. Glaring at her mother, Rory jumped off her bed and ran into the washroom, where she locked the door and sat on the edge of the bathtub.

"Is this a bad time?" he asked her, concern in his voice.

"No, it's alright. Lorelei's just yelling," Rory said, and then froze. Lorelei? Since when had she started calling her mother by her first name?

"Yeah… are you at home?" he asked her, and something occurred to her.

"You haven't left, have you?" she asked him, ignoring his previous question.

"I'm still around. I looked around a bit, but I avoided as many people as I could," he promised her.

"Jess!" Rory scolded, pressing a hand to her forehead.

"Make sure your room's empty in ten minutes," he told her, and she nodded to the air.

"Okay," she promised, and pressed the 'talk' button.

Getting off her perch, she opened the door and looked around. Her mother didn't appear to be there. Sighing, she tip-toed back into her room, but her mother was waiting there on the bed.

"Who's Jess?" she asked, and Rory blinked.

"Huh?" she asked, and then realized that she'd practically shouted his name on the phone.

"You were listening to my phone call?" Rory demanded.

"I heard you shout it, and besides, how else am I supposed to find out about what's going on?" she asked. Rory could see that this separation between them was making her miserable.

"Get out of my room," Rory hissed, pointing at the door.

"Who's Jess?" she asked again, ignoring the demand.

"Jessica, it's a girl from school," Rory lied, and she didn't even feel bad about it anymore. That was not a good sign.

"Why were you yelling at her?" her mother demanded, rising from the bed. Rory could feel another blaze of shouting about to boil, but she knew that her mother had to be out of here in ten minutes, before Jess came.

"Because she screwed up her article for the first Franklin paper," Rory blurted, it was the first thing that came to her mind.

"The Franklin?" her mother asked, doubting it, but not really having anything else to go on.

"Yeah, that's it," Rory snapped, and pointed to the door again. "Can you please leave, I'm tired."

"Fine," her mother shouted and stormed out of the room. She slammed the door on her way out and knocked down a few of her books. Angrily, Rory shoved them back onto the shelf and sat down on her bed. Even while she was going through the angry motion, she heard tapping on the window. Turning, she saw Jess there.

"Hey," she said to him as she pushed open the window.

"You ready?" he asked her.

"Let me get my purse," she told him, grabbing the handle and then hopping out the window with him. Seconds later they were in the woods and two hours later they were in New York again.

"Rory, look, I'm sorry," Lorelei said, opening her daughter's door half an hour after their fight, only to find the window open and her daughter gone. Tears stung her eyes and she closed the door softly. Crying, she dragged herself back up to her room. Inside, all she could think about was how she'd lost her baby. After seventeen great years, Rory had finally claimed independence.


	5. The Guy's Trouble

**A/N:** This chapter is exceptionally long, over ten pages longer than any of my previous chapters… thanks to my need to get this part of the plot over and done with. I also wrote it at about three in the morning, and was too tired to beta read the entire thing, so there's probably going to be quite a few mistakes (such as the replacement of the word 'foot' for 'shoe'). They should be fairly obvious, or at least that's what I'm hoping. I'll attempt to read it through after I get home tomorrow.

"Mom! We have to go!" Rory shouted from her room. She was dragging a large package containing a white dress that would be apart of her 'Coming Out' ball tonight. Somehow she'd been roped into going, despite her mother's and her own objections.

"Dean isn't here yet!" shouted Lorelei. They'd managed to start getting along ever since Rory had gone back to her normal schedule of schooling and Dean dating.

Rory spent every Friday and Saturday with Jess. She'd go during school to see him on Friday and get the notes from Paris on Monday. Saturdays she begged off with the help of Lane and her constant prayer rallies. Fortunately, Mrs. Kim still had no idea of her involvement in the entire ordeal.

"It doesn't matter, he can drive himself!" Rory shouted, excited about this party. It would be the first time Jess and her would be anywhere in public. Unfortunately, they had to do it in secret.

"Okay, let's go!" Lorelei shouted, and the two of them rushed out of the door, dragging ten tons of pantyhose, gloves and other junk behind them and into the jeep.

The trip to the ball was made in absolute silence. Not because there was nothing to say, but because Rory had started to like it that way. Since her and Jess had gotten together, they spent a lot of time in silence, just enjoying each other's presence. Her mother didn't really understand why her daughter's personality had changed so incredibly, but it wasn't really in her job description to understand.

When they got there, Rory was out of the car before it had even stopped. By the time her mother got to the trunk with her, she'd already dragged out over half of the clothes and was struggling to the building.

"My, aren't we excited," Lorelei taunted, watching her daughter in awe.

"I can't wait to put on this dress," Rory said, and the excitement was real. Jess hadn't actually seen it. Thanks to his being out in New York, they weren't together as much as she would have generally liked them to be. Thus, he wasn't there to help her pick out her dress, and she hadn't been able to broadcast it for him.

"Huh," Lorelei said after noticing that Rory had spaced out again.

During the entire process of getting ready, Rory didn't notice a single person. They all ignored her and she ignored them. They were all so excited over the entire situation of being 'brought out' into society, whereas she was just excited at the chance of seeing Jess in a public place. It was a strange turn of events between them. It almost seemed as though he was starting to get content just being with just her, and she was starting to want to be with him in public.

"Hey, Rory," called a voice from behind her, it was Dean. She smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek, she never kissed him anywhere else when she would be seeing Jess. Normally guys weren't allowed in the changing room, she wasn't sure how he'd gotten past security, but it didn't really matter.

"Hi," she said. The excitement was obvious in her voice.

"I never thought that you would be so excited over a ball," he told her honestly and shrugged his shoulders awkwardly.

"Well… I just have a good feeling about tonight," she told him, then kissed him on the cheek again and smiled. "I have to go get ready, I'll see you tonight."

When she went back to her mirror there was a note there for her. She frowned at it and looked around. There was no one out of place. Taking it off, she opened it and a white petal whispered onto her skirt. It was barely definable. She picked it up and read the note. It was from Jess, telling her to meet him on the balcony when all the rest of the bullshit was finished. She'd only 'just' gotten him to come to the engagement.

Smiling to herself, she kissed the petal and placed it back in the note, which she placed in her purse. It took another half an hour to get herself ready and presentable for the ball. All the while she was looking for him, hoping that he'd appear with another note so that she could stop him and hug him, or kiss him… or anything. She'd have settled for even a glimpse of him at that moment.

Taking a deep breath, she went out into the line-up with the rest of the girls. For the most part, the night was completely uneventful. The ritualistic tendencies of the festivities took up an hour of her life. As for the last tradition, she was supposed to dance with her partner. But when Dean touched her, she felt like yanking away.

The upper-class DAR members stared in horror as a boy, no older than seventeen, walked onto the dance floor in the middle of the dancing couples. He walked with a purpose, directly for a couple near the center. Unlike the rest of the escorts, the white on his 'costume' was red, including the gloves, and his tux didn't have the normal tails. When he reached where his prey and her 'mate' were dancing, he waited for a turn and grabbed her hand right out from under the other boy's, and took her dancing across the floor.

"Jess?" Rory asked, barely recognizing her boyfriend in the clothes that he'd decided to wear. She'd never even seen him in something unwrinkled, let alone a tux.

"Shh," he told her and took her through the last motions of the dance.

At the beginning of the second dance, which could be joined by anyone, Dean stormed over to them.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean yelled at Jess, towering over him and shoving Rory protectively behind his back.

Rory looked out from behind Dean and blew Jess a kiss. Jess saw the motion and looked up at the bigger man with a rather large smirk on his face.

"I'm no one," he said with a shrug, and then promptly walked off the floor and to the balcony. Rory watched him, memorizing his every movement.

"Rory, do you know who that was?" Dean asked her, while turning around to face her. Rory had about two seconds to school her expression into one of confusion.

"I don't know… he just grabbed me," she said, sounding a little distressed for the sake of the situation.

"Who does he think he is?" Dean fumed, and started marching toward the balcony.

"Hey, Dean! I'm thirsty, could you get me something to drink?" she asked him, and when he was officially out of sight, she darted over to the balcony.

"Jess?" she called.

"A lady, alone on such a night?" Jess taunted from behind her, and she turned to see him standing in line with a pillar. It was the perfect hiding place. People wouldn't see him until they turned around.

"Alone? No," she said, and tip-toed over to him. She kissed him softly, not wanting to smear her make-up.

"Tell me when you want to bail," he told her, and nodded towards the ground.

"What? You want me to crawl down the balcony?" she asked him, her eyebrows rather high.

"Nah, you can leave out the front door, I'll jump down the balcony," he told her, and kissed her again, this time with passion in it.

"But where's the fun in that?" she asked him between kisses and grabbed his hand. "Come on."

"Bailing so soon? I think I've been a bad influence on you," he teased, and helped her get over the rail. Once she was over, she jumped onto a semi that was parked underneath, making a delivery.

Jess was about to turn jump down as well when he heard a noise. He turned around to see Dean standing there. From the look on his face, he was still looking for Rory, but then his eyes settled on Jess instead.

"You," Dean snarled.

He put the drinks down and marched towards his target. Jess looked around and then down to Rory. He really didn't want to have to beat the shit out of her 'boyfriend' on their first meeting, but it didn't look like he was going to have any other choice. Dean reached out as though to grab him and Jess shoved his hand away.

"Don't touch me," he scoffed, turning around so that the fight would at least take place away from the balcony, so that his adversary wouldn't accidentally see Rory attempting to scale her way down the semi.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean repeated, continuing to advance on the smaller man.

"I told you, I'm no one. Do I need to break down the words for you?" Jess asked, keeping himself moving. If he got this dispute back into the ballroom, chances were that Dean wouldn't attack and he might be able to take a running leap onto the truck, getting away.

"Why did you cut in?" Dean demanded, pointing a finger at him.

"Because you dance like shit, and she needed someone who could actually carry her on the floor," Jess said honestly, stopping his movement once they were in full view of everyone at the party. Now, if Dean was going to attack, he would have to do it with everyone watching.

"Why Rory?" Dean asked, not realizing that he was in the ball room now.

Although he couldn't see behind him, he was almost positive that they'd attracted quite the crowd. His smirk stayed place on his face, taunting his would-be attacker.

"I don't know, maybe it was her eyes," Jess told him, motioning to his own eyes, which couldn't compare to hers.

"Stay away from her!" Dean raged, and now everyone was staring at them.

"Dean?" called Lorelei from out of the crowd. Jess turned around, hearing this voice that he'd only heard in passing, sneaking around Rory's house.

Lorelei was gorgeous. He could understand where Rory got it from. Smirking again he walked past Dean to the balcony. He saluted the tall boy and jumped off the ledge onto the semi. To anyone who didn't know that the semi was there, it probably would have looked like he'd pulled an 'Aladdin'.

It only took him a few seconds to get down. He didn't mind getting a little dirty. Rory was waiting for him. When he hit the ground, she turned him around and kissed him, shoving him against the truck.

"Missed me?" he asked her, then took her hand and pulled her under the balcony, where people couldn't see them.

"Let's get out of here?" Rory suggested, and Jess smiled at her, holding up a set of keys. She looked at them and then to her boyfriend.

"You stole my car?" she asked him in mock-outrage.

"Only a little bit," he told her, kissing her again and taking her off to where it was parked. It was in a private lot, one that was only for the people who were putting on the ball. Fortunately, it also wasn't patrolled, and the car looked perfectly in place.

"I'll drive," Jess said, twirling the keys around his fingers. He opened her door respectively, allowing her entrance, and then went back over to his side, where he opened his door and slid in. "Where to, my lady?"

"Wherever," she told him with a smile.

"What time do you need to be home?" he asked her again.

"Whenever," she said with a large, mischievous smile.

"Wherever, whenever? You're starting to sound like me," he said, kissing her and putting the car in reverse.

Just as they were leaving, the people from the party started pouring around, looking for where their debutant had mysteriously disappeared to. There was a large choice of places around Connecticut to be made. They could go anywhere with a car at their fingertips.

"How about we go to California?" he asked her, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"I want to graduate first," she told him, placing her hand over his on the shifter.

"Another two years?" he asked as though it was the longest time he'd ever pondered in his life.

"Yup, until then, we're Connecticut-bound," she told him as they laced their fingers together.

"Alright, no California… how about we go up to Canada?" he asked her. "We could be back my Monday."

"Canada? I've never gone," she said honestly. "But we'd have to stop at my house first."

"Sure," he said, turning an abrupt U-turn in the middle of the street and blazing back towards Stars Hollow.

When they got there, Lorelei was already there, waiting apparently. Rory frowned as they past and looked over at Jess. He'd noticed her too.

"How about I just buy you some new clothes when we get there?" he asked her, turning around in his seat.

"Sure," she said with a cheerful nod. "I'll even model some of it for you."

"Oh really?" he said, an eyebrow rose at the very idea.

"Uh… hey Jess?" she asked, a frown passing over her features.

"Yeah?" he asked her, his mind still drenched in ideas of 'shopping'.

"Where do you get all this money?" she asked him, crossing her arms across her waist in the seat.

"Around," he told her with a shrug.

"You don't… steal it, do you?" she asked him, looking at him to mark his sincerity. She was pretty sure that he'd never lied to her before, but he was also very good at half-truths.

"I work for my money," he said, his voice almost seeming cold.

"Jess, I'm sorry, I just… you spend a lot of money on me," she said, rubbing his hand with her thumb.

"You deserve it. I make my money and I get to spend it however I want," he told her with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Alright," she said, kicking off her shoes and curling them beneath her legs. "So… Canada?"

"Canada," Jess said with a nod.

"Wait, Jess, I don't have any ID!" she told him when they were barely an hour out of Stars Hollow.

Jess looked down at the gas tank, shook his head while smirking and U-turned the car again.

"You are a difficult woman to take anywhere," he told her with a small laugh.

"Well… this wasn't exactly planned," she griped, sinking down into her seat.

"Where are they? Your house or the party?" he asked. If they were at the party, he could probably go in and get them without being detected. If they were at her house, however, it would be hell.

"I know I brought my purse to the party… but I don't know if they were in it," she admitted guiltily.

"Shit," he said with a nod and blazed towards the party, the lesser of two evils.

About half a mile away, he pulled into a side road that wasn't visible from the main highway and parked. He leaned over and kissed Rory firmly.

"Don't leave," he told her, then unbuckled and started running for the party.

Rory sat in the car, okay for the first few minutes, but after ten she started to get antsy. She didn't have her purse, so she couldn't even call anyone. Finally deciding that she had to do something, she got out of the car and walked along the road for a few minutes, then turned around and started back. Unfortunately, on her way back, she noticed that there was a shadow lurking around the car. The shadow was too tall to be Jess. She could only come to one conclusion, that shadow was Dean.

Darting behind a tree, she thought quickly about what she could do to get out of this. She would have to warn Jess or he would go directly to the car. Panicking, she kicked off her dress, leaving her in her undershirt and a slip. It was easier to walk around in and not quite as eye catching. Being careful not to attract any attention, she inched in the direction that she thought was the mansion. On her way, she noticed that Dean was going towards where her dress was lying. This brought another piece of panic to her mind. If he found her dress… he was going to think that she was abducted. Suddenly she wished that she would have just stayed in the car.

"Rory, what are you doing?" a voice asked from behind her, and an arm snaked around her waist to pull her flush along her 'abductor's' body.

"Jess, Dean's out there, and he's going to find my dress," she told him, looking up as though getting ready for a scolding.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I found your purse, call Lorelei and tell her you're fine. When they ask why your dress was here, tell them that you were having car problems and you decided to take it off instead of ruining it," he whispered to her and kissed the back of her neck.

"Okay, but how are we going to get out of here?" she asked him, turning around to look at him.

"I think our trip to Canada's been cancelled," he told her, his face serious and considering the situation.

"Let's get to the other side of the road. You can start walking towards Stars Hollow, people will think you got stranded," he told her, then grabbed her hand and moved stealthily through the brush until he was able to see where Dean was. The giant was busy talking on his cell phone, so Jess kissed Rory 'goodbye' and sent her running across the road. Once she was there, she brushed through the forest until she got to the road and started trudging towards home, hoping that someone would find her before she got sick.

Fortunately for her, someone managed to pick her up within five minutes. Even more to her fortune, that person was her grandmother. When asked, she then dissolved into tears about how she hadn't been able to get the car restarted and had to abandon her dress so that she wouldn't lose it. Emily, of course, understood completely about the need to not ruin a dress and stepped in on Rory's behalf during the argument that came about with her and her mother.

"Lorelei, she didn't want to ruin her dress, so she took it off! It's common sense!" Emily scolded.

"Why was she out there in the first place, mother? Did you ask her that?" Lorelei shouted.

"I was getting a headache. I was just going home to grab some aspirin," Rory told them when they both looked at her. "I didn't want to miss the ball, but I guess I did anyway." She had no idea where the tears were coming from, but they just kept flowing. After an hour of shrieking, she was sent to her room, grounded. Her mother had been attempting to ground her a lot lately, but it hadn't really worked.

As Rory slammed into her room, she was about to lie down on her bed when she noticed another note, with another white flower petal on it. She padded over to it and picked it up, on the note it stated to meet her in the city's square at eleven. A quick look at the clock showed that it was quarter to. Re-dressing quickly, she jumped out of her window and off the porch. Her mother and grandmother were still shouting, so she doubted that anyone would be there to see her.

When headlights turned around the corner, she jumped behind her garage. Dean came out of her car and looked around. She watched him frown and look over by where she'd been standing, before he proceeded to go inside. Letting out a breath of relief, she ran around the edges of town until she saw the square. Jess was no where in site.

Inching out of her hiding spot, she managed to make it to the town square without anyone noticing her. Looking around, she finally noted that there was an irregular shape perched in the gazebo. Walking quickly, she went to examine it. Lying on his back, book in front of his face, was Jess. He looked over as he heard her footsteps on the ground and smirked.

"You're late," he told her, looking down at his watch.

"Dean came, I had to take the long way," she told him with a shrug and walked over to him.

He sat up as she got nearer, so she sat down beside him. He folded his book and shoved it into his back pocket. That was the reason why every single book she got from him was always oddly bent. A book from Jess was a book well read.

"So… how'd Lorelei take it?" Jess asked, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her tight against him.

"Not well. She grounded me," Rory said with a small smile.

"Grounded, huh?" he inquired, smirking with her.

"Yup, for a month. I'm not even allowed to see Dean," Rory said, her eyes wide and shocked, as though this was a bad thing.

"No Dean for a month? Sounds like my kind of month," Jess replied and kissed her.

Rory forgot about words and just focused on kissing him. After a few seconds, they were vertical on the bench. Jess pulled back and climbed off. He flicked his hands a little bit and ran them through is hair.

"Jess?" Rory asked, not quite understanding his fleeing motions.

"Not on a park bench, Rory," he told her and grabbed a cigarette out of the ever-present carton in his back pocket.

Rory rose from the bench and drifted over to him, swaying with the wind. She watched as his eyes followed her every movement and she grinned.

"Wow, I didn't know I could do that," she told him.

"Huh?" he asked her, having completely gotten lost in the moment.

Instead of answering, Rory pressed herself against him and kissed him again. She grabbed the cigarette out of his hand and flicked it away. She then reached behind him and grabbed the full carton, which she threw out as well.

"Hey, that's a lot of money you just threw out," he complained, but there was no real effort in it. He was too preoccupied kissing her.

The kissing continued for another few minutes, until there was the sound of a twig snapping somewhere near them. Jess was gone in an instant. She barely even saw him move. Rory stepped off of the gazebo and looked around. Not seeing anyone, she moved behind the gazebo. Luke was standing there, looking at her in shock.

"Was that Dean?" he asked, pointing up at the gazebo.

"Uh…" she replied, too stunned to come up with an actual word.

"He was too short to be Dean. Who was that, Rory?" he demanded, and Rory looked back at the gazebo as tears started to well in her eyes. Someone else knew about them now.

"He's my boyfriend," she told him pathetically, angry at herself for not being able to think up a better response.

"So it was Dean?" Luke asked, frowning as though calculating the height difference in his head.

Rory didn't respond, she was looking to see if she could find Jess anywhere. He seemed to have disappeared off the face of the planet.

"I thought that you were missing?" Luke further prodded, attempting to get the girl to speak.

"I was, my car broke down but my grandma found me and drove me home… So I'm home now," she said, able to get out a weak smile. She blinked back her tears of shame at being caught.

"Why are you out here?" he asked her, frowning.

"I don't know. Why are you?" Rory snapped at him, then turned and marched away.

"Rory! Where are you going?" Luke demanded. He was not used to the, normally well-behaved, teenager being angry, let alone snapping at anyone.

"I'm going home, Luke," she shouted at him, not bothering to turn around. Instead of going home, however, she was headed towards the bus stop.

"Your house is the other way," he informed her, speed walking until he was a meter behind her. "Does Lorelei know you're here?"

"Sure she does," Rory told him after a moment's hesitation.

"Why don't you come back to the diner? I'll get you some coffee and you can order dinner," he suggested.

"No, thank you. I'm going to wait here," she told him, sitting on the bus stop.

"For what?" he asked.

"The bus," she explained slowly, as though talking to a very old person.

"To go where? It's almost midnight," he asked, checking his watch.

Rory looked over to the street where the bus normally came from. Jess probably needed to catch this bus, but he couldn't do it with Luke here, because then Luke would know who it was. This posed a dilemma. Feeling very annoyed with the situation, she stood up and marched over to Luke's diner. She wouldn't be kissing Jess 'goodbye' tonight.

"I'll call your mom and you can go home," Luke told her as they neared his building. Rory rolled her eyes and crossed her arms across her waist. Her eyes flicked over to the bus stop, but he wasn't there. Frowning, she turned around and went into the diner.

"Who were you looking for?" Luke asked her when he saw her checking over her shoulder.

"No one," she told him and sulked. One quick scan of the store told her that there was only one other person in the store, and a double take told her that the person was Jess. He was staring at the menu, a blatant frown on his face.

"Hey, are you the owner?" he demanded.

"Yeah, who're you?" Luke asked back, his voice gruff and a bit offended.

"Danes… Luke Danes?" Jess asked, ignoring the other man's question.

"Yeah, so what?" Luke asked, confused by this outburst.

"Nothing," Jess said with a shrug, although there was tension running high through his body. Rory could read him like a book.

"Can I get you anything?" Luke asked the strange kid.

"I'm fine," the kid said, then walked out of the restaurant. There was a very, very subtle moment when his and Rory's hands touched, their 'goodbye'.

Rory watched him go, very confused at why the kid was asking so much about names. She looked back at Luke, who was also looking at the kid, and then attempted to plot her getaway.

"I'll call your mother," Luke said, coming out of his stupor.

Rory watched him until he turned his back. When he was dialing the number, she pressed against the door and made a run for it. She heard the 'jingle' of the door and was already over halfway to the woods. When she got there, she dove in a roll and hid behind a tree. Jess was there too, he was smirking at her.

"You could swear you were being mugged," he told her.

"Why the hell were you in there?" she demanded of him, angry and confused still from his little episode from before.

"He's my uncle, Rory. My mom's last name is Danes," Jess told her. It was weird for him to not run around in circles, but she could understand that he was probably just as shocked as she was hearing it.

"Uncle?" Rory asked again, blinking and looking back at the diner, where Luke was busy attempting to figure out where she'd gone.

"Yeah," Jess said, and there was a 'look' in his eye that she didn't like.

"What are you planning?" she asked him suspiciously.

"Nothing," he told her, but the Cheshire-cat smile told otherwise.

"Your bus is here," Rory told him, seeing the headlights rolling around the corner.

"Come with me?" he asked her.

"I don't have my purse," she protested, although it was a very weak protest.

"Come on," he said, getting to his feet and offering her a hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. They then proceeded to the bus stop hand in hand. When they were sure that Luke wouldn't see them, they rushed forward and caught the bus driver's attention. Fortunately the driver was used to these kinds of antics from the two teenagers.

"Hiding again?" he asked them, and was about to close the door when Luke appeared around the corner. Rory, stunned by his appearance for the second time that night, froze, allowing Jess time to hide under some seats. The bus driver noted this strange appearance and voted to stay quiet. Rory and Jess were one of the happiest couples he'd ever seen. He didn't want to ruin their relationship.

"Rory, what are you doing?" Luke fumed, and Rory looked desperately at the driver.

"Close the door, please," she asked him, and his eyes flickered from her to Luke.

"If you close this door, I'll call you in for kidnapping," Luke threatened and marched into the bus. He grabbed Rory's arm and dragged her out, then to the diner.

Jess jerked up in his seat, looking at Rory being taken away. He then looked at the bus driver, and took off out of the bus again. There would be another one in four hours, he could catch it then.

Rory started fighting when she saw her mother's jeep turning around the corner, and saw both her mom and Dean in the front seat. A small ball on panic spread through her, and as much as she tried to fight it, it wasn't going away.

"Luke, please," she begged, trying to get away.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, but you need to go home," he told her, pulling her the rest of the way into the diner and sitting her down at a table.

Rory then started crying. They had been so close, seconds away from making it, when Luke had ruined it all for the second time that night. This thought brought animosity that she'd never felt towards anyone to the surface.

"Lorelei!" Luke greeted when she came into the diner, and Rory proceeded to tune him out after that.

"Rory!" she heard whispered from the back and she turned to see Jess crouching there.

Her eyes darted to the three people arguing about her 'safety', and then back to Jess's 'come here' motions. She removed her shoes, because they were heels and slid out of her chair. When she didn't attract any attention, she scuttled to the back of the diner and into the back alley where Jess was waiting.

"Why didn't you catch that bus?" she hissed at him, but kissed him anyway.

"I couldn't leave you with that," Jess told her, then picked her up, as the alley was covered in glass, and carried her to the cover of the trees.

"Thank you, Jess," she told him, laying her head on his chest.

"Don't thank me yet, that's the fourth time tonight we've been caught," he reminded her, and then turned around to make sure they weren't being followed. There weren't any searchlights, which he considered a good sign.

"What now?" Rory asked. She was conflicted by choices. One option was to go with Jess, have the time of her life over the weekend and come home after school on Monday, or she could go home and be screamed and yelled at.

"That's up to you," he told her honestly, taking the last few steps that would lead them to the freeway.

"There's a motel a few miles down the road?" she suggested, and he nodded.

"Alright," he told her and they started walking, in the trees, away from the road, so that they wouldn't get caught a fifth time.

Two days later, Monday to be exact, Rory caught the bus home from school and walked home, ignoring the stares of almost every townsperson. She walked a little faster by Luke's, not wanting him to catch her and yell at her for running away. By the time she got to her driveway, she was feeling rather good about having evaded them.

"Rory Leigh Gilmore, get in there this instant!" screamed someone from the porch, and her eyes rose to see her grandma standing on the porch.

Deciding that she this was precisely what she deserved, she marched confidently up to the house and inside. She then sat down on the couch and waited for people to yell at her.

"Where have you been all weekend?" her grandma demanded.

"Out?" Rory stated, as though it was the plainest thing in the world.

"And where is 'out'?" she further questioned, and Rory decided that she was in an interrogation.

"I was around. I went to Hartford and New York, just… around," she said with a shrug as her arms settled into their favorite position, hugging her waist.

"Everyone has been worried sick about you, don't you care?" Emily demanded, and Rory looked up at her, considering.

"Do I care? Yeah, of course I care. But I want freedom too!" she told her, the words bitter.

"Freedom is one thing, but this is ridiculous!" her grandmother shouted and went into the kitchen.

Rory debated taking off, but decided that it would only lead to worse things. Thus, she walked directly past all the people waiting for her in the kitchen and into her room. She slammed the door and crawled onto her bed. Being with Jess, she hadn't gotten much sleep. They were lucky if they scraped together three hours a night, but that's what happened when you were dragged to parties and kid-bars, as Jess called them.

"Rory?" called a voice from the door. She looked up to see Dean there. He looked concerned and hurt, like the kicked puppy dog he was.

"What?" she asked him.

"Why are you doing this?" he begged.

"I'm doing it because I want to," she told him, and put her head back down on the pillow.

The movement officially ended the conversation. Over the next two hours, everyone from Patty to Luke to Taylor came in to give her their piece, and not one of them seemed to get through her shell. When ten rolled around, she decided to turn in early in favor of actually being able to function at school the next day.

This 'turning in early' continued throughout the week, but she always went to New York on Fridays and then Jess would come out to Hartford on Saturdays. Two months after the Debutante-fiasco, as it had been named, Rory was allowed out of her house-arrest in order to attend the Basket Festival. Her mother thought that it would be good for her to get out and 'stretch'. She figured that a day out with Dean would be good. Rory thought that it would be torture.

The week previous she'd told Jess that they would have to call off their Saturday meeting because of the festival, he was not amused. She wasn't that happy either, but there wasn't much they could do about it.

In favor of building the basket for Dean, she'd just packed random things that could be easily cleaned out. Everyone knew the Gilmores couldn't cook. Thus, it was just accepted that they would be taken out to lunch instead of picnicking.

"You ready to go?" Lorelei asked, stopping at Rory's door.

Rory was putting the finishing touches on her basket, which was small and jam packed with random non-edible things.

"Yup," she said with a sigh and hauled the basket onto one of her arms.

The two made their way in silence. What little reparations that had happened before the ball were all crushed. They were back to not talking. She could count on one had the amount of words she'd said to her mother in the past four weeks. When they got to the festival, Rory delivered both their baskets and went to wait on the sidelines, away from everyone.

She already knew the outcome of the bidding. Dean had gotten her basket the year before too, though at that time she'd at least been able to stand him. When the bidding started, she was upset to see that she'd put her basket on the wrong end. It would end up being one of the last ones chosen, which meant more time waiting and more time with Dean. Sighing, she looked out over the crowd, seeing the exact same faces as she'd seen every other year.

When her basket finally arrived on the scene, she stood up and went to wait with the rest of the crowd, closer to Dean so that she would be there to congratulate him and pretend to care.

"Let's start the bidding at… three dollars!" Taylor shouted to the crowd.

Rory was a bit ruffled at the idea of being sold so cheap, but Dean shouted out "Five," and actually gained some merit in her books. Then, much to her surprise, a "Ten," was shouted out of the back, and the same person increased their bet to twenty a few seconds after. Her blood ran cold when she heard the voice, it was Jess. She pushed through the crowd in an attempt to find him, but only found the same people as always. Finally she found someone wearing a low-brim hat. She frowned at the person, as they were also wearing a fairly long coat. The bidding war had reached ninety dollars, as called by the man in the coat, and Dean backed down.

Rory frowned as the man went up to claim his basket. She looked at Dean as he glared evilly at the man with the basket. Rory followed said man as he funneled out of the crowd and to a less populated area of the square. Unfortunately, Dean also found it necessary to follow.

"Who is that?" he fumed, marching towards the guy. When he got there, he tapped twice on the guy's shoulder before pulling him around so they were facing each other. The hat still covered his face.

"Who are you?" Dean yelled at the place that would have been the face, was there not a hat blocking it.

"I'm no one," the voice answered before Dean went flying backwards.

The guy grabbed Rory, and Rory pretended to struggle as he 'dragged' her off. After they were out of Dean's site, Rory turned around and ripped Jess's hat off. He was laughing beneath it, and after a few seconds, she joined in.

"I'm going to kill you," she told him between laughs.

"Not if 'Dean' gets to me first," Jess said, getting his laughter under control and dropping the basket on the ground. "I'm going to guess that there's nothing edible in there, is there?"

"Not a thing," Rory replied and kissed. While kissing him, she unbuttoned his jacket and pushed it off his shoulders, leaving the coat lying on the ground beside the basket and the hat.

"Have anywhere you want to go?" Jess asked her when he had enough air to speak.

"Anywhere," she told him. "Just remember, I'm your captive."

Jess smirked at her, took her hand, and led her to the edge of town, where there was a bridge across a creek. He took her into the middle and they sat down.

"We should do this more often," he suggested, still amused with Dean's reaction to his shove. It had been obvious that the taller man wasn't expecting to be hit right off the first word.

"But you can't keep coming into Stars Hollow, Jess…" she warned him, and he sighed, moving away from her a bit.

"Why can't you tell them? Rory, it's been six months, if you don't tell them, I will," he told her honestly, running a hand down her cheek.

"I know, I just don't know how to tell her," Rory admitted.

"It doesn't matter right now. Come here," he told her, and kissed her again. Rory wrapped her arms around him and allowed him to carry her off to the place that they could only reach when they were with each other. In six months, she still hadn't slept with him. She knew that it was frustrating to him, but there just didn't seem to be a 'right' time to do it.

The day was spent kissing and sneaking around the town. Jess even went so far as to have a pizza delivered to the bridge, putting the money for it out in the open for the deliveryman to obtain. When it was getting close to eight o'clock, Jess walked her home.

"This was… nice," she said, kissing him again.

"Yeah," he admitted, and kissed her again.

"I'm going to miss you," she told him, placing a hand on one side of his face.

"Me too," he further admitted and then pushed away. "You need to go, Dean's probably worried sick about his little princess."

"Okay," she said before kissing him again and walking across the backyard to the porch door.

When she got inside, her mother was waiting for her, as she usually was. There were deep lines of worthy on her face that Rory had never seen before. She frowned and wondered if she'd caused those.

"Hi, mom," she greeted as she walked past her.

"Rory, where were you today?" she asked, although she didn't expect an answer.

"I was out," Rory told her with a shrug and slipped in to her room.

Lorelei continued to sit at the table for another hour, drinking cold coffee until there was none left. Finally, after deciding that this couldn't go on any longer, she opened her daughter's door with a 'slam' and walked over to the computer, where she was probably writing some important article for the Franklin.

"Rory, I have been very, very lenient. I have let you get away with so much, but I can't do it anymore. You have this entire secret life that no one knows about, and I can't take it anymore. If you are not home every single day by four, I am going to send you to live with your dad in Boston," she explained, on the verge of tears the entire time.

"You can't do that!" Rory shouted, turning around in her chair. "I have to go to Chilton!"

"Why? So you can skip classes and flunk out?" Lorelei snapped.

"I'm still the top student in my year," Rory protested.

"How? All I ever see you doing is writing articles, talking on the phone and hoping out windows. Where do you go?" Lorelei begged.

"What does it matter to you? You did the same thing when you were my age," Rory grumbled.

"Yeah, so that you wouldn't have to, because I thought I'd raised you better than my parents raised me," she admitted. "But I guess that I was wrong, wasn't I? So if I can't raise you, then your father will."

"No, I'm not going to dad's house. If you try to send me there, you won't be able to find me in the morning," Rory threatened, and she knew the words to be true. If her mother did try to send her away, she'd go to Jess and live with him. They'd make it. She'd have to put her Harvard dreams on hold, to get a job, but they'd make it.

"Rory, can't you see what you're doing to yourself?" Lorelei demanded, walking to her daughter and motioning to her body.

"I'm happy, you should be happy for me too," Rory hissed, and then grabbed her coat and purse. "I'm going out."

"Where?" her mother demanded, marching after her as she'd taken to doing over the past few months.

"Just out," Rory fumed. She tore open the door and slammed it behind her, then ran out onto the driveway. She pulled her jacket on as she went and made it to the bus stop in time to catch the twelve o'clock bus.

"Hey," she greeted the driver.

"Hey Rory," he greeted and allowed her to slip to the back of the bus before he started on his way.

The trip out to New York was, as was normal, boring. She'd already finished the bus manual, and she'd even read some of his textbooks. He was taking security courses during the day and driving at night.

When they reached New York, she jumped off the bus and instantly headed for Jess's place. She made it without incident, which wasn't unusual. Despite her clothing, she was very rarely ever talked to when she was on her own. When she was with Jess, quite a few guys tried for her, probably thinking that Jess was her 'catch' for the night.

After climbing up all fifteen stories of stairs, she almost ran to the door and knocked on it loudly. "One minute," Jess called from inside, and opened the door without a shirt on and his pants hanging halfway off.

"Rory?" he asked, and she kissed him. She pushed him into the house and into his room.

"I want… I want it to be tonight, Jess," she told him on the way. He allowed her to push him as far as the bed before he took control and turned them over. He kissed her solidly and for a minute before pulling back.

"Why tonight?" he asked, keeping himself as far away from her as possible.

"My mom told me that she's going to send me to Boston to live with my dad if I keep coming to see you," she told him, bitterness and anger in her tone.

"Boston?" he asked, calculating that they'd never be able to keep up the nice little set up they had if she moved to Boston.

"I think I can do something," he told her, shuffling off of her and dragging her onto his lap instead.

"What?" she asked him, but was interrupted by the sounds of smashing from the kitchen.

"By doing something I've wanted to do for months," he told her, his tone almost making her flinch. She hated it when he talked like that.

At first she heard talking, and then she heard the sounds of a fight. She emerged from his room to find him and Brent locked in a wrestling match on the ground. Brent had the upper hand, beating the living crap out of Jess. Rory wanted to help, but she knew that she'd only get in the way. After another hit, Jess grappled the bigger man, smashing him into the wall behind her. She ran to the other side of the room, beside the window, and curled up, trying to avoid the fight.

Once Jess had the upper hand, he didn't stop. He went over and proceeded to punch the man until his face was a bloody mask.

"Jess! Stop!" she screamed, hiding her face from the gore that her boyfriend was causing.

Jess stopped when he heard her voice and pulled away, completely unremorseful. A few minutes later, Liz managed to stagger out of her room and saw Brent on the ground.

"Jess! You little asshole! Look what you did!" she shrieked, the pitch of her voice hurting all the ears in the room.

"Yeah, I did something that I've wanted to do for months. This guy kicks the shit out of you, and me, and you just let him. He overpowers you and forced you to do things that you don't want, and you let him. Did you ever think about whether or not they're actually good for us?!" he shouted. Rory had never really seen this side of Jess before. This was the old Jess, the Jess that had probably been there before she'd ever met him. He still cared what his mother thought about him and wanted her to approve of him, something that Rory had learnt she never did.

"I love him!" Liz protested, the words seeming to bounce right off her.

"What about me?" Jess shouted.

"What about you!? I'm sending you to live with your father in the morning!" she screamed.

"You don't even know where my father lives," Jess replied bitterly.

"Then I'll send you to live with your uncle, I don't want to see you around here ever again," she told him, staggering over to him and smacking him across the face.

Rory instantly jerked to her feet and stormed over to Liz. She punched her in the stomach and was about to do it again when Jess grabbed her, holding her back.

"Don't you ever touch him! He's trying to help you! Why can't you see that?!" Rory screamed in fury.

"It doesn't matter, Rory," Jess told her, but she could hear the sadness of rejection in his voice.

"You bitch!" Liz cried, holding her stomach. She then proceeded to throw up all over the floor. It was not a pretty sight. Rory turned and hid her face in Jess's shoulder.

"Get me the phone!" Liz demanded of Jess, and Jess did it.

"This is the last thing I'm ever doing for you," he told her, and his words sounded just angry enough to be true.

"Fine," she spat at him, and dialed Luke's number by heart, it was the same number that she'd used to get a hold of her father twenty years ago, so she hadn't managed to forget it.

"Luke?" she cried, and there was the sound of concern on the other line.

"Luke…" Rory whispered, finally realizing what Jess was doing. She looked up at him from her hiding place in his shoulder. "Luke?"

Jess didn't reply. The only inclination that he ever heard what she said was the flickering of his eyes down to hers and the slight twitch of a smile on his face.

"I need you to take Jess. Yeah, your nephew. The little asshole just tried to kill Brent and then his bitch of a girlfriend punched me," she screamed, and for a few seconds there was shouting back.

"No, I need you to take him now!" she demanded, and Rory felt herself being tugged into his room again.

"Here," he said, tossing her a large green bag. Rory opened it and started shoving clothes into it. Jess started packing a bunch of boxes he had in his closet. He'd been planning on taking off for some time now, so the boxes were just convenience if something like this ever actually happened.

"Jess?!" screamed his mother again, and she staggered to the door, leaning on the door frame.

"I'm out," Jess told her, carrying two boxes in his arms and the green bag over his shoulder. Rory had another two boxes; effectively emptying his room with the exception of some CD's that he stated he could live without.

"And don't come back!" she told them, following them to the door as though her very presence was threatening them away.

When they hit the stairs, they took them quickly, almost running. They would have to get to the bus stop in ten minutes in order to get there with enough time to load his stuff onto it.

Neither of them said anything on their sprint, and they ended up making it in just enough time to catch it as it was attempting to leave the station. They shoved his stuff on board and then hoped on themselves.

"Taking a trip?" the driver asked, curious about the boxes.

"I'm moving to Stars Hollow," Jess told the driver with a shrug.

"Moving?" the driver asked, his expression shocked.

"Yeah, moving," Jess said with a small smile. He was glad to be out of that hellhole. Stars Hollow wasn't exactly his ideal place either, but at least it had something that he couldn't live without.

Rory and Jess moved to the back of the bus, as they normally did, and cuddled together until she fell asleep against his chest again. Jess stayed awake the entire time, wondering if this was too impulsive. He normally wasn't scared of taking impulsive steps, but he also didn't want to be thrown out into the streets. He knew that he had a father somewhere, but he didn't know where, and no matter where that 'where' was, it was going to be away from Rory, and he wouldn't be able to take that.

When the bus reached Hartford, he woke up Rory and the two of them both pondered what they were going to do. The suns rays were sneaking over the horizon when Rory finally picked up her cell phone.

"I'm calling my mom," she told him, and kissed him. He got the idea and kissed her back.

Flipping open the phone, she sped dialed number one and pressed the phone to her ear. After a couple of rings, a voice that she could barely recognize as her mother's answered the phone.

"Mom?" Rory asked, wondering if she'd programmed in the wrong number.

"Rory? Where are you?" she asked, although her voice sounded like she didn't expect an answer.

"Meet us at Luke's in ten minutes," Rory said, not offering more than that.

"Us?" Lorelei asked, and Rory smiled at Jess, who was also smiling. He was eavesdropping on the conversation and liked the sound of the word 'us'. She grabbed his hand and focused back on the conversation.

"Yeah… us," she reaffirmed. She was happy that she would finally be able to tell the truth.

"Alright," her mother responded, sounding confused.

Rory hung up the phone and watched as Stars Hollow appeared. The driver stopped outside of Luke's instead of at the normal bus stop so that they would be able to carry Jess's boxes easier. As they were about to leave, Rory turned back and gave him a hug.

"Thank you, so much…" she offered as a 'farewell', and then took her boxes again and went into Luke's with Jess.

Luke was standing, waiting for this mysterious nephew of his. He hadn't seen Jess Mariano since the boy had been in diapers and his father had abandoned them.

"Hey Rory, what are you doing here… and why do you have boxes?" Luke asked, not putting two and two together.

"Luke, this is Jess… Jess Mariano," Rory said, introducing his nephew to him after putting her boxes down on one of the tables.

"Jess?" Luke asked, looking at the strange kid who'd come in and ordered nothing a couple months previous.

"You? You're my nephew?" Luke asked, looking frustrated.

"Yeah," Jess said with a shrug, and Rory walked over to him. She grabbed his hand and led him to a four-person table.

"My mom's going to be here in a few minutes," Rory told him, snuggling against Jess's side.

"Wait… the gazebo?" Luke asked, fixing together the puzzle pieces. "He's why you've been catching so many buses?"

Rory nodded and Jess gave Luke a 'look' that told him to be quiet until Lorelei came. Luke didn't particularly get the 'look', but he did walk over to the table and sit down.

Lorelei arrived as Luke was busy staring at Jess, as though measuring him. Jess didn't enjoy being stared at, so he proceeded to ignore his uncle and stood up jerkily when Lorelei came into the room. Rory rose as well, although slower. This would be the first time that Jess would actually meet her mother.

"Hi, mom," Rory said with a small wave. "You might want to come over and sit down."

The two teenagers watched as Lorelei took in every inch of the situation, from the rumpled clothing to the boxes and then to their hands. An expression of sudden understanding was on her face and she seemed to drift over to the table unconsciously.

"Mom… this is Jess Mariano, he's Luke's nephew… and he's my boyfriend," Rory told her, feeling the support of Jess's hand on hers.

"Boyfriend?" Lorelei asked as more pieces were falling into place.

"Yeah… boyfriend," Luke echoed to himself.

"We met last year at that field trip to New York…" she admitted. If it was one thing she knew about her boyfriend, it was that he didn't like talking, so she was trying to do it all for him.

"Last year? During that musical field trip? This is the guy you've been sneaking off to see?" Lorelei asked, angrily.

"Yeah, he is," Rory said, her anger was just as real.

"And it took you until now to tell me? What did you think I was going to do?" Lorelei demanded, her hands turning white-knuckled on the table.

"If you knew that I was going to see a boy in New York, would you have ever let me go… alone?" Rory asked. It was the simple question that had guided their hidden relationship for all these months.

"No, of course not," Lorelei snapped, and then rounded on Jess. "How dare you!"

"It wasn't him, mom," Rory shouted, squeezing Jess's hand and trying to keep herself from standing up to scream.

"So you and Dean…?" Lorelei asked, and then glared deeper at Jess when Rory shook her head.

"I'm still a virgin, mom. We haven't done anything," Rory told her, unflinchingly.

"Right, like I'm going to believe that," Lorelei fumed.

"So… Jess, what was it that you did that brought you here?" Luke asked, completely changing the subject. It was not on his 'to do list' to hear teenage girls rant about their innocence.

"I made sure that 'Brent' isn't going to be hurting Liz for a long time," Jess said with a shrug.

"Who's Brent?" Luke asked, obviously behind on his sister's love life.

"Her husband," Jess said, shifting a little bit in his chair.

"You fought with your step-father?" Lorelei yelled.

"Yeah, and I punched his mother. Stop trying to blame him for things that we did together!" Rory shouted, standing up to yell at her mother and letting go of Jess's hand.

"No, it was you!" Lorelei cried, pointing at Jess. "You stole my daughter from me!"

Jess said nothing, but he didn't back down. He just stared at her as she accused him of things. He knew better than to make an enemy out of the woman who was in charge of the woman he loved. He blinked once as the word 'love' popped into his mind, but he forced it away for another time.

"He didn't take anything that I wasn't willing to give," Rory screamed, slapping her mother's hand away.

"Rory, go home," Lorelei shouted.

"Fine," Rory hissed, and Jess rose as well.

"No, you stay here," Lorelei told him, and Jess looked at her like she was insane.

"Lady, you just accuse me of stealing your daughter from you, and pretty much telling me that I'm the lowest form of creature… and you want me to listen to 'anything' you have to say?" he asked her, before taking Rory's hand again and allowing her to lead him out.

When they got outside, Jess shook his head. "That's the reason, huh?" he asked Rory, and she smiled at him, tears leaking out of her eyes.

He hugged her to him, kissing the top of her head and holding her. "It's alright, I'll make good with her when she calms down. Let's go back to your place," he suggested, and she nodded against his chest.

He turned her around and led her down the stairs. They were about halfway across the square when there was a shout from the general gazebo area. Dean came marching around the corner and over to where they were walking.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded, and Rory couldn't help but feel annoyed with all the shouting that was being done.

"Dean-," she began, but was cut off by Jess.

"No, I want to do this," he told her, and gently pushed her to the side. "Hi Dean."

"You!" Dean shouted, and advanced no him. "Who are you?"

"My name's Jess, and Rory's been 'my' girlfriend for the past ten months, and she'll be my girlfriend for a hell of a lot longer than that. I'd suggest that you stay away from her," Jess told him, and was expecting the hit when it came at him.

He deflected it and shoved his elbow into Dean's chest, knocking the wind out of him. He then smashed his fists, joined, on his adversary's back, knocking him down to the ground.

"Don't ever touch her, or talk to her, or, hell, even look at her again," Jess roared, glad to finally be having this conversation.

Unfortunately, in his amusement, he had misjudged Dean's abilities and the tall man jerked his body up, slamming into Jess and sending him sailing through the air. He smashed into the gazebo and sunk to the ground, attempting to get his wind back. Dean came over to him and proceeded to punch him twice in the face and once in the stomach. He hauled him to his feet and smashed him again in the nose.

Jess was pretty sure that his nose was broken, but that would be the least of his worries if he didn't get out of this position. He threw his body weight into the larger man's mid-section. Dean wasn't able to catch his balance and fell backwards. Jess got out from around him and went over to where Rory was waiting. She had a piece of her shirt torn off, from her stomach, and ran over to him, mopping up the blood coming from his nose.

"Why did you do that?" she asked him, shaking her head at his stupidity.

"I don't know," Jess was able to say before he was rammed into from behind. Dean took both him and Rory down, and then, in a blind rage, started kicking them. Jess tried to shelter Rory as much as he could until she was able to get to her feet.

"Dean!" she screamed, holding her arm against her body.

Jess crawled to his knees when the kicks stopped for a second, only to get booted again. He fell to his side and got back up again. Dean was still angry at him and he swung his fist again. Despite being slower, thanks to all of his injuries, Jess still dodged the swing and punched him back in the face, knocking him backwards a few paces.

"Rory! Are you okay?" Jess asked, trying to get over to her.

"Don't touch her!" Dean shouted, and lunged at them again. Jess reached over and grabbed Rory as Dean caught her, misjudging his distance. He only managed to hold on for a second until Dean took all of them down to the ground. Jess picked up a large, heavy, rock and smashed his adversary over the head, not really caring if he did too much damage.

"Jess?" Rory asked from underneath her ex-boyfriend's unconscious body.

"I'm here," he told her, grabbing one of her hands.

"The world is fuzzy," she informed him before she fell unconscious. By this time they'd attracted the entire morning crowd, and someone had gone over to get Lorelei. Kirk was there, claiming that he'd seen everything. Dean attacked first, he claimed as Lorelei came running.

Jess reached over and grabbed her cell phone. He called an ambulance for Rory before sinking down to the ground himself. He grabbed his side. It was painful to breathe all of a sudden. The adrenaline was wearing off.

"Jess?" Luke asked, and Jess briefly registered his uncle coming to his rescue when the same 'fuzziness' that took Rory took him as well.


	6. Welcome Home

There were the strange sounds of beeping coming from everywhere. Pain ran through her arm and head, it felt as though someone was attempting to break it open. Hesitantly she reached up to feel her face, but a shooting pain through her arm made her stop. A hand settled over the arm she tried to lift and she opened her eyes, trying to focus on something.

"Rory?" the person asked, and she smiled.

"Jess?" she asked, barely recognizing her voice.

"Yeah," he told her, placing a hand on her forehead.

"What's going on?" she asked, trying to open her eyes again.

"We're in a hospital… Dean attacked us…" Jess told her, his voice sounded different, but she couldn't place the emotion.

"Dean…? Oh," she whispered, as she remembered the night. "Did he hurt you?"

"I'm fine," he told her.

"What happened?" she asked after a few seconds.

"It doesn't matter," he told her, and she felt her mind swimming again.

"Jess… what happened?" she asked again and managed to crack her eyes open.

He looked about as good as she felt. Both of his eyes were completely black and he had a bandage over the bridge of his nose. The image was the last thing she saw before her world fizzled down to black again.

Jess sighed as she went under. He'd been sitting by her side for almost a week. Rory had slipped into a coma for a few days and had just come out of it the day before. She'd only gained consciousness for a few seconds before they slipped her a sedative and knocked her back out again.

After a few seconds, he pulled back and settled his elbows down on his knees. He was there for a few minutes, pondering going back to sleep, when Lorelai walked into the room.

"How's she doing?" she asked, attracting Jess's attention. Despite their having to be together in this issue, Rory's mother had barely spoken three words to him since the attack.

"She was up for a few seconds, wondering where she was," Jess told her, and one of his hands went back to Rory's. He squeezed it gently, watching her.

"My mother wants to press charges," Lorelai told him, stepping over to look at Rory. He saw the fragile balance in her face. Her daughter being in a hospital bed had ruined what little composure she'd had the night of the attack.

"It was aggravated assault," he told her with a shrug. "I knew Dean would attack me when I told him about Rory… I just didn't expect him to attack her."

"So why did you do it?" she demanded. He was positive that he should have gotten a blast of anger in the comment if she wasn't so tired. The two of them had been living off of caffeine and two or three hours of snatched sleep here and there.

"I don't know… to prove a point? I don't know," he told her, letting go of Rory's hand. "I'm gonna go get some soda."

"Here," Lorelai said and handed him one that she'd picked up at the vending machines.

"Thanks," he offered and frowned at the drink.

Despite having his excuse taken away, he rose to his feet and moved to the other side of the room. Originally Rory had been placed in a public room, but then her grandparents had come and paid the hospital for a private one. It had a lot of room for him to pace, which was something that he'd been doing a lot of in the past few days.

"You don't have to be worried," Lorelai told him, a reminder that she was still in the room.

"Huh?" he asked her, not understanding the comment.

"She's not going to blame you," she said with a shrug and took another sip of her coffee. Luke had been bringing coffee to her three or four times a day, the rest of the time she bought it from the vending machines.

"What?" he asked her, stepping back a little bit to catch his balance. He was exhausted and his balance wasn't exactly on its best behavior.

"The fight, she won't think that it's your fault," Lorelai explained, and he suddenly felt like there was a catch to this conversation.

"Is that so," he muttered, watching her like she was dangerous.

"But that doesn't mean that I don't. I don't see what's so special about you, but Rory seems to… care a lot about you. I don't want to lose my daughter because of a guy. I'm not going to be my mother. If you hurt her, I will make sure that you never see her again," she threatened, but her voice and body were completely relaxed. He knew this threat and he knew that it was serious.

"I didn't mean for this to happen!" he shouted, pointing at Rory.

"But it did anyway, didn't it?" she asked, the infamous Gilmore-anger bubbling to the surface.

"You know, whatever," he snapped and flew out of the room. Halfway to the door that would lead him out of the hospital he smashed into someone. That someone was carrying coffee and the coffee was soon all over the floor.

"Jess?" Luke whispered. Despite being smashed in to, he continued to keep his eyes downcast. He really didn't like hospitals.

"Luke," Jess returned, and stopped his fleeing.

"What the hell are you doing?" he muttered, and shoved Jess back towards the room, wanting to get out of the hallway.

"I'm trying to get away from Lorelai," Jess admitted. It was stupid and cowardly, but she'd been on his case all week. He needed a break from her constant threats.

"It's not going to happen," Luke told him and opened the door. He shoved the younger man inside and then entered himself. Once the door was shut, he lifted his head and looked at Rory.

"Hey," Lorelai greeted. Her eyes were looking for coffee that wasn't there.

"Sorry about the coffee, there was an… incident in the hall," Luke said awkwardly, motioning to the door.

"It's okay," she said with a shrug, then went back to watching her daughter.

"Do the doctors know when she'll be able to go home?" Luke asked, going to stand by Lorelai.

"No…" she said, tears in her voice.

"She woke up a few minutes ago," Jess offered.

"That's a good sign," Luke said, hoping to get some semblance of peace between the two feuding people in the room.

"Yeah," Jess and Lorelai admitted in unison, before glancing at each other. Lorelai glared and Jess just watched her impassively. He had no intention to be angry at her, he just wanted to be apart of Rory's life.

The room then proceeded to fall silent. There were about ten chairs strewn around for all the visitors that she got. Just by sitting in the room, Jess had managed to meet over half of the town. Some of them admitted that they had come twice just so that they could get to know Rory's 'boyfriend'.

Jess didn't mind the attention, although it wasn't particularly his style. After almost a week and a half of lying in the hospital bed, Rory finally managed to wake herself up enough to get up and walk around. Jess had been there for her one arm and Lorelai for her other. Luke was there to catch her if she fell. For a few seconds, until Lorelai chewed his head off, he almost felt like he belonged there, with them.

"She's doing very well and should be able to go home tomorrow," Jess overheard the doctor say when she'd hit the two week mark.

"He says tomorrow," he relayed to Rory, who was sitting up in her bed and waiting for the answer. She was sick of just lying in bed.

"Thank God," she said gratefully and grabbed onto his hand with her un-fractured one. The cast that had been crafted to contain the fracture would be able to come off in a few days.

"Hey, Rory…" he started, wanting to talk to her while her mother was out of the room.

"Hmm?" she asked, reveling in the idea of being in her own bed.

"Do you blame me?" he asked. His eyes were downcast, he didn't want to see her if she said 'yes'.

"For what?" she asked instead, like he'd never done anything wrong in his life.

"For this," he answered, motioning to the bed.

"This was Dean's fault," she told him, squeezing his hand.

"But I picked the fight," he told her, angry with himself.

"Maybe you did, but Dean still attacked you," Rory told him, letting go of his hand to lift his head up. She connected their eyes and pulled him forward. He moved carefully and kissed her softly.

A cough from the door broke them up. Luke was standing, very awkwardly, holding coffee and doughnuts.

"Oh, doughnuts!" Rory exclaimed and grabbed one as soon as they were in reach.

Luke offered one to Jess, but he turned them down. Despite his girlfriend's eating habits, he had a tendency to avoid those kids of food. He wasn't a healthy eater by any means, but he also couldn't see how Rory and her mother could eat as much as they did.

"So, I have some good news!" Lorelai announced from the door.

"I get to go home tomorrow!" Rory chimed in, grabbing Jess's hand again and smiling at everyone.

"Cheater," Lorelai grumbled cheerfully and walked over to them. She kissed her daughter's head and gave Jess a look before sitting down.

"So what's happening with Dean?" Luke asked curiously. He hadn't been kept in the loop with this part of the situation.

"Grandma wants us to press charges… but… I don't know," Rory admitted honestly, shrugging her shoulders. Jess looked away. He was still guilty over the situation. He'd almost left twice, to give her a chance to get her old life back, before he'd decided that he couldn't live without her and went back. That had been the day that she'd regained consciousness for a couple of hours and after the fight with Lorelai.

"Well, I think you should do it," Luke admitted. "Everyone says that Dean attacked, even when he knew you were there." It was strange how the 'lumberjack' could be so protective over someone that he wasn't related to at all.

"But he's Dean," Lorelai protested weakly.

"Yeah! He's Dean!" Rory added.

"What do you think, Jess?" Luke asked, trying to get someone on his side.

"It's up to Rory," Jess answered with a shrug, trying to get out of having to answer awkward questions.

"So you don't think that you should?" Luke demanded.

"I don't know," Jess re-answered and turned away from the room. Everyone knew that the movement usually meant to leave him alone.

"I say no," Rory finally answered.

"I think so too," Lorelai agreed.

"Jess?" Luke asked the back of the teenager.

"Whatever," Jess answered, then turned and slammed out of the room.

"Jess!" Rory shouted and jumped out of the bed. With only her gown on, she scrambled after him. Lorelai chased after her and Luke chased after all of them.

"Jess, stop!" Rory begged, knowing that she wouldn't be able to keep up with him if he really didn't want her to catch him.

"Rory, you shouldn't be out of your bed," their doctor shouted over the chaos and chased the, rather large, line up of people.

After a few seconds of fuming, he realized that he was being chased and he slowed down. Rory skidded to a stop right in front of him and he caught her so that she wouldn't finish by knocking them both over.

"What are you doing?" he asked her, angry that she was up and about.

"Jess, it wasn't your fault," she told him, hugging him close.

"If I hadn't talked to him… he wouldn't have…" Jess said, unable to form the rest of the words. The room was watching them by now, but neither of the angst-filled teenagers paid any attention.

"It would have happened sooner or later," Rory told him, trying to reassure him.

"But look at this mess! You've been in the hospital for two weeks, Rory," he reminded her.

"Yeah, and I don't care," she told him honestly.

"How can you not care?" he asked.

"Because you're still here," she replied with a small smile.

"What do you mean?" he asked with a frown.

"I was told that you almost left… twice," she said, looking over her shoulder at her mother.

"Yeah," he admitted, and realized that he was attempting to flee yet again.

"But you didn't…" she told him and lifted herself onto her toes. She kissed him softly.

"No… I didn't," he said with a frown, as though this was a rather large accomplishment. He'd been told by his mother, and Luke, that Mariano boys had a terrible tendency to flee at the first sign of complications in a relationship. It had been his first choice, as well, but he'd gone with option number three in the hopes of being able to reconcile with Rory.

"I love you," she told him. It was the first time that he'd heard those words from anyone, and it caused a ripple effect. First he didn't believe her, and then he looked around the room, not seeing faces, but just to look around and memorize the place so he would always remember it.

"I… love you too," he finally said, and supported her against him so he could kiss her.

The silence in the room was absolute while they were kissing. Different feelings were being thrown off at the idea of this admission. Lorelai was resigned that her daughter had fallen for a jerk, Luke was happy that he had someone like Rory to help him keep Jess in line, and the doctor was busy writing up instructions for Rory's recovery-time at home, which included 'minimal' physical activity.

Then, after quite the lip-lock, Jess escorted Rory back to her room. The next day she was released. There was a bit of a blow out about who would get to drive Rory home, but Lorelai ended up winning when Rory promised to spend the rest of the day with Jess. Said day was still heavily monitored by parents, guardians and towns people who randomly cut in on their every movement. It seemed like they were everywhere that they went. When the week finally past and Friday rolled around, both of them were sick of it.

"This place is hell," Jess said after they were caught for the twentieth time that day.

"This is why I kept it to just us," Rory told him, then grabbed his hand and started towards the city square.

"Understandable," he muttered, allowing her to tug him to wherever they were going.

Rory dragged him through town until they reached an area he recognized. It was the bridge that they'd taken their picnic at. It only took a swift look around to realize that there was no one waiting in the wings to come out and pounce on them. He was grateful for that.

"So," he said as they walked into the middle of the bridge.

"So," she repeated, taking his other hand and smiling up at him.

They closed the small distance between them, kissing softly at first before exploring and deepening the kiss. Their hands broke apart so that they could search the other's bodies. One of Jess's hands slipped into his coat pocket. He grasped an object within and dragged it out. Gently, he pulled away and handed her the item.

Rory looked down at the box in her hands like it was going to eat her. It was covered in black velvet… it was a ring box. She looked up at Jess, eyes shining in amazement.

"Open it," he told her, feeling awkward with all her attention on him.

Not saying anything, she opened the box and took out the small note that was propped up within, covering something. She read the note before she looked inside.

"I promise," she read out loud, barely hearing herself. Then she looked inside and saw what looked like part of a ring. She pulled it out, blinking back tears, and just stared at it for a second.

The band was white gold and the diamond was tastefully placed, but it looked like it was supposed to fit into something else. She looked back up at Jess, who was standing like he was going to pass out any moment.

"Jess?" she asked, not really knowing what else to say.

"I know we're young, but I promise that I'll go through with this… when we graduate," he told her, his eyes rising from the ground to her face.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking down at the ring again as though the small rock was going to suddenly disappear from her hands.

"Yeah," he said with a nod. "Well?"

Rory looked between the ring and him twice before placing it in his hand and smiling.

"Put it on," she told him, just as she was sure he was about to panic about having the ring given back to him.

Her words put him to rest and he visibly relaxed. He gently slid the ring along her finger, all the while pulling her towards him. Their lips met again and their hands wandered over each other, searching for the next step.

"Jess… I'm ready," she told him, looking at him with her eyes shining.

"Last time you said that you told me you were going to Boston," he told her between kisses.

"I'm not going anywhere," she promised and leaned into him.

"Okay," he said with a nod and took her hand. "Tell your mom we're going out for the weekend."

"She'll know," Rory said, as though objecting. The very idea of telling her mother about the two of them actually having sex sent a jolt of terror through her body. Lorelai hadn't exactly hid her disdain of Jess.

"I don't care," Jess told her, turning around and kissing her as they were walking. Neither of them really knew where they were going, and after a few seconds, Jess felt something hard hit the back of his heel. He lost his balance and grabbed onto Rory to try to level himself, it didn't work. They both fell back into the water.

"Shit!" Jess cursed as he tried to get his seating.

Rory was laughing at his panic. She grabbed onto his shirt, leveling them both in the water and smiled up at him. Her eyes glanced at her ring, admiring it and what it represented for a moment, before turning back to him.

"I love you," she told him.

"I love you too," he promised and pulled her to him for another kiss.

"I'm freezing," she told him when they finally pulled apart. Her teeth were chattering and her body was shivering.

"Come on," he said, pulling her into his arms and carrying her out of the water.

"I need to change," she told him.

"Alright," he agreed and they headed off towards her house.

"Aren't you cold?" she asked him.

He shrugged in response and she shook her head at him and continued home. When they walked through the door, Rory's grandma was standing there waiting for them. Jess froze in place and Rory grabbed his hand in hers, trying to convince him that this wasn't going to end badly.

"What are you doing?" her grandma asked, appalled at them both being drenched to the core.

"We fell in the creek," Rory chattered out. Jess moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, adding their body heat so that she wouldn't be quite as cold during this interrogation.

"I don't want to know," her grandma said and motioned her off to her room.

Rory nodded and dashed off to the kitchen, leaving Jess to deal with Emily Gilmore. He stood awkwardly for a second, trying to decide what the best form of action would be.

"Well?" Rory's grandmother asked him.

"Hello Mrs. Gilmore," he answered and turned to close the door.

"What were you doing?" she demanded, reminding him of the interrogation.

"We fell into the creek," he answered defensively.

"How could you have fallen into the creek?" she inquired.

"We weren't watching where we were going?" he offered.

"Why not? It's a cold day, you could have caught a cold and Rory's weak right now!" she scolded.

"We were making out, okay?" he told her, shifting uncomfortably in her presence. All the Gilmore women were crazy.

"No, that's not okay!" Emily answered, and was about to start harping on him when Rory's door opened and she hopped back out.

"Hi," she said to Jess, forgetting that her grandmother was there for a minute.

"Hi," he said back, and the goofy smiles on their faces said it all.

"What is going on?" Emily demanded of them, not understanding the googly eyes.

"Uh, nothing," Rory answered, hiding her hand behind her back after remembering that her grandmother was there. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to make sure that you don't 'mysteriously' forget about tonight's dinner, and I was going to ask if you could bring him," she told them, motioning to Jess.

"Dinner?" Jess said. The horror in his voice was obvious. "I'm working."

"But I thought…?" Rory said, thinking about their romantic weekend, before she realized that he was attempting to get out of dinner. She then smiled at him behind her grandmother's back.

"Working? Can't you change… shifts?" Emily sputtered out after remembering what the word was. Gilmores didn't have shifts. They had solid, constant jobs.

"Well, that's tonight, it's short notice," he told her, his voice solid but his body showing signs of panic at being forced to spend a night in the presence of three Gilmore women.

"How about I call Luke's and see if I can talk him into it?" Rory offered. She was looking at both of them with doe-eyes, as though it were the 'least she could do'.

Jess gave her a 'look' that told her that she was going to have to pay him back for this, and then Emily turned back to look at him and he wiped his face clear again.

"That would be wonderful, Rory," Emily said, smiling at Jess as though this would make his night.

Rory mouthed, 'I love you,' behind her grandmother's back and rushed into the kitchen. Jess looked down at the ground for a second, gathering his wits about him. He was going to need them all for the night.

"Yeah, that'd be great," he muttered and walked into the kitchen, trailing water on his way.

"Hey Luke?" Rory said into the phone, but Jess could see that the light wasn't on the phone. "Do you think that Jess could have the night off? He can? Thanks, yeah, he's asked to come to dinner with me tonight. He won't be home until later. Bye, Luke!"

Jess glared at her and leaned over her. He pulled her against him, effectively drenching her again and kissed her. "You owe me," he whispered into her ear and turned around to leave.

"Where's he going?" Emily demanded as she watched Jess march out the door.

"He's going to change," Rory said with a shrug and looked down at her clothes. Sighing, she headed back to her room.

"I'll be right out," she told her with a smile and skipped into her room again.

Emily was then left in the kitchen wondering what had just happened. She was still sitting in the kitchen when Lorelai returned home and Rory came out of her room.

"Hi," Rory said to her mother, her stomach in knots.

"Hi," Lorelai greeted back.

"Could we go talk upstairs?" Rory asked, motioning to the stairs nervously.

"Sure," Lorelai said, frowning at her daughter's manners.

"We'll be right back," Rory told her grandmother, who nodded and rolled her eyes.

Once upstairs, Rory turned to her mother and grinned. "Mom… I need you not to freak out about this, okay?" she asked her, the happiness glowing off of her was only giving her mother bad vibes.

"Okay," Lorelai said anyway, deciding to give the situation a chance.

"He asked me to marry him," Rory said, showing off her ring finger.

"What?" Lorelai asked, her world falling to pieces. Her daughter was not supposed to be married before her.

"He said that we're going to do it when we graduate… I'm so excited!" Rory said, bouncing up and down. Lorelai placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder to stop her.

"Rory, this is a big step," she tried to convey.

"I'm ready, I would be ready now if I could… but I think he wants to wait, so that we can move to Boston and get our own place," Rory told her, not registering her mother's sadness.

"Boston?" Lorelai asked, sitting down on her bed.

"Yeah, I'm going to Harvard and he's going to go to the community college there. We're going to get our own little place and visit on the weekends," Rory explained. Her eyes were shining with hope for the future. She wanted nothing more than to be with Jess for the rest of her life.

"Rory, that's still a year away, don't you think that you're… I don't know, giving this too much thought?" Lorelai asked, feeling hopeless when it came to the situation between her daughter and Jess.

All of a sudden there was a shout of, "It was you!" from the kitchen and Rory and Lorelai were shocked out of their talk. They were stumbling down the stairs to see what was going on when they saw Emily standing up, staring at Jess, who was dressed in the same tuxedo-esque outfit that he'd worn to Rory's Debutante Ball.

"Rory?" Jess asked when he saw her, hoping for her to come to his rescue.

Rory hurried down the rest of the stairs and went to stand in front of him. She took his hand behind her back and smiled at her grandma.

"Yeah, he wanted to be my escort… but he couldn't because no one knew about us yet," Rory explained.

"How long as this been going on?" Emily demanded, having been left out of the Jess-part of Rory's life.

"About ten months," Rory answered, and her grandmother gaped at her.

"Ten months? Ten months and you didn't tell anyone?" she asked, feeling completely forsaken.

"Drama queen," Lorelai grumbled from the stairs and Rory attempted to hide her smile. Emily turned to glare at her daughter.

"How could you let her do this?" Emily demanded, and Lorelai looked at her like she was crazy.

"I didn't let her do anything," Lorelai said with a shrug and finished the last few steps.

"It was our choice… ma'am," Jess offered. His arms were now wrapped around Rory's waist and her hands were covering his on her stomach.

"Are you pregnant?" Emily asked, noticing the position of their hands.

Like shrapnel, they jumped apart and stared at each other in terror. Neither of them wanted a child, they wanted to get their lives settled first.

"No," Rory gasped and looked at her like she was crazy.

Emily glared at them like they were hiding something and walked past them, outside and to her car. Rory and Jess walked with Lorelai, but there was about an inch separating them the entire time. The ride to the Gilmore Mansion was made in complete silence, neither really wanting to comprehend the idea of Rory getting pregnant.

When they arrived, they continued to walk with space between them. It was then that Lorelai noticed this partition and frowned at them.

"Are you alright?" she asked, confused at the distance that the, normally lovey-dovey, couple were placing between them.

"Yeah, we're fine," Rory said cheerfully and rang the doorbell to discourage further questioning.

"Hello," said the new maid and let them in.

"Can I take your coats?" she asked, and the three of them gave her their coats. Jess also gave up the jacket of his tux, as he figured that it was too stuffy in the house already.

"Hello, Lorelai, Rory!" Richard greeted them from the study, and then his eyes fell upon Jess.

"Jess…" he finished. Jess had met everyone at the hospital, but he'd been in a rough state himself. Most of the time he hadn't even noticed anyone talking to him, he was too busy beating himself up over Rory's injuries.

"Hello, Mr. Gilmore," he greeted with a nod, not really sure what else he was supposed to say.

"Well, come in," he said, waving them into the study. "Would you like something to drink?

"I'll have a martini," Lorelai answered.

"I'll take a soda," Rory said with a smile and took Jess's hand. The two of them walked into the study and sat down on the love seat.

"And you?" Richard inquired of Jess.

"I'm fine," he stated.

"Alright," Richard replied and went about making their drinks.

"Hello, everyone," Emily finally greeted, coming down the stairs in a different outfit from the one that she'd worn to pick them up. It was obvious that this one was more 'tailored' for the occasion.

"Hi, grandma," Rory greeted.

"Hey, mother," Lorelai answered cheerfully, after being handed her martini.

"Hello, Mrs. Gilmore," Jess asked after being nudged by Rory.

Emily gave Jess a look, before resuming her perfect 'hostess' position on the chair at the head of the study. Richard took a seat beside Lorelai on the couch across from where Jess and Rory were sitting. There was silence for a few seconds, before Richard finally got it in his system that this was another boyfriend to torment.

"So, Jess, what do you do in your spare time?" he asked, hoping that this wasn't another Dean.

"I read," Jess answered simply.

"Oh, what do you read?" he asked, liking this one better than Dean already.

"Anything…?" Jess said, looking like a trapped specimen.

"Do you read the classics?" Richard further inquired, attempting to get out an answer more than two syllables long.

"Some," Jess answered with a shrug.

"And how do you do in school?" Richard asked, starting on the same route that he'd gone with Dean a few months ago. Everyone in the room was tense, except Jess, who didn't know how the last round of this had turned out.

"That all depends," Jess said with a shrug and grabbed Rory's hand.

"On?" Richard asked, frowning at the boy's lack of speech.

"If I go or not," Jess answered with a shrug. He then got a small nudge from Rory and got the message, 'explain'. "I wasn't exactly there for two weeks."

"Ah, so you can speak in sentences," Richard proclaimed, and Jess blinked in confusion. "What grades do you get normally?"

"When I'm there, I'm the top of my class," Jess said. Everyone knew that Jess was smart. It was just a matter of actually being there to prove it.

"Good!" Richard said, another check in the 'Jess' survey. This caused everyone to let a little bit of their tension go. "And where are you going to college?"

"I'm going to college in Boston, somewhere near Harvard, and then I want to transfer in sometime," Jess said. The last part was foreign to Rory. She had no idea that he actually wanted to go to the same school as her.

"Harvard? Well, those are quite some ambitions," Richard stated with a nod.

"Yeah, but I have something to keep me going," Jess offered, shrugging and looking at Rory out of the corner of his eye. They both smiled and looked away from each other.

"Indeed," Richard said with a small, mysterious smile. "Shall we go to dinner?" He led the party to the dining room.

As they were standing, Rory leaned over and kissed Jess, rather passionately, and then pulled him to his feet.

"What was that for?" he asked her, confused.

"I love you," she told him simply, then took his hand and led him into the dining room.

Jess was rather confused at the looks he got from the other females in the room. Lorelai glared at him for gaining her father's approval and Emily merely frowned at him, curious as to whether or not the boy was telling the truth, and if he was, if it was so bad for Rory to be seeing him. Jess tried to ignore the looks and concentrate on Rory, but it was difficult to do when you were constantly being studied. He consciously made a note to himself to never agree to dinner again, even if Rory was promising him the world.


	7. Pay the Price

The looks carried with him as he walked into the dining room. Richard was sitting at the head of the table, which left him beside Rory. He didn't mind the seating arrangement with the exception of Lorelai and Emily being together on one side of the table. Sighing mentally, he prepared himself for not-good things. If Rory and her mother were any sign of what these women were like, he couldn't imagine what Lorelai and her mother fought about.

The salads were already on the table. He took one look at it and decided that he'd never even seen something so well set up in a restaurant, let alone one he'd had to eat in. He picked up a fork, the small one, and pondered where to actually start eating when Richard looked at him. He could feel the older man's eyes, and then the two women's, so he looked up from his plate, attempting not to cringe.

"What sort of books do you read?" Richard asked cheerfully.

"Mostly just classics, I don't like a lot of modern books," he said with a shrug, trying to keep himself from just fleeing the table.

"Ah," Richard said, still pleased with the situation.

"Well, this salad is lovely, isn't it?" Emily chimed in, almost as though she was attempting to take the pressure off of Jess. Although he suspected an underhanded attempt at something else, he couldn't help but be grateful.

"Yeah… good lettuce!" Rory answered with a smile.

Jess went back to poking in silence, separating pieces of the vegetables apart and then putting them back together. He wasn't precisely aware of how closely he was examining everything. He was just trying to keep the eyes off of him. Despite his attempts, he felt their eyes drift back to him, slowly.

"So, Jess, where do you come from?" Richard asked, breaking the silence.

"New York… Manhattan," he provided, realizing that he was probably supposed to answer the questions with more than two words.

"What brought you to Stars Hollow?" Richard inquired, sounding almost confused at the strange situation. Why anyone from New York would want to move to Stars Hollow was probably beyond most people, hell, if Rory wasn't there, it would be beyond him too.

"Well, I guess it was Rory that brought me," Jess told him, lifting his eyes for a split second.

"Rory?" Richard further prodded, as though he had no idea why.

"Yeah," Jess said with a nod. He then sat awkwardly for a second as no one spoke. After almost a minute of the silence, he figured it was probably a sign for him to keep talking. With a mental sigh, he continued, "When she came to see me, I knew that I had to do something."

"She came to you?" Richard further prodded.

"Yeah… she came to New York to see me," Jess confirmed with a nod.

"Alone?" Emily chimed in.

"Yes…" Jess answered before he saw Lorelai and Rory's combined signs of 'say no!' When he uttered the word, however, both of them seemed to do an identical 'shrinking' motion in their seats.

"Well, did you meet her at the bus station?" Emily asked, taking over for Richard.

"I didn't know she was coming," Jess answered. Her grandparents were cornering him, he could feel it.

"So she walked to your home, alone, from the bus station?" Emily said as a way of reaffirmation.

"Yeah, she did," he said, feeling angry at being cornered. He was a born fighter. It was just the way that New York kids were raised, even if it was just verbal.

"She must have been seeing you for some time if she knew where you live," Emily barked, and he knew this was probably about as cornered as he could be.

"We've been together for ten months," he told her, feeling the need to rise and shout at someone growing, but he suppressed it in favor of the two women who were both glaring daggers at each other. He didn't want to be in the middle of the dispute.

"Maybe we should have dinner brought in," Rory suggested, trying to get the steam off of her boyfriend.

"Dinner can wait," Richard told her and sent a very pointed look in her direction, which caused her to shrink down a bit more. He then looked at Jess again, who didn't shrink but seemed to rise to the challenge. "What was so important that she came to see you alone at night?"

"She was going to Boston and she wanted me to go with her," Jess half-shouted and had to grit his teeth to keep from doing just that.

"Boston?!" Richard and Emily both exclaimed. Richard's voice was a whisper of shock, Emily's was loud and shrill. It gave him a headache that he was not looking forward to dealing with.

"Why is Rory going to Boston?" she demanded of Lorelai.

"She isn't, wasn't, I was just trying to make her tell me what had been going on," Lorelai answered. Jess could tell that there were going to be fireworks between the two of them and stood up.

"Now, if you're finished using me in this episode of 'Family Feud,' I think that it's about time that I leave. Thanks for the invite," Jess snapped, standing up and throwing his fork down with a 'clank'.

The room was left in complete silence as he left, and he continued to not hear anyone move until he opened the door and slammed it on his way out. Standing outside, he fumbled with his pockets, trying to find his cigarettes, but they weren't anywhere to be found. Fuming, he remembered that Rory had gone through is stuff earlier. She'd probably taken away his emergency smokes.

"Rory, don't you dare leave this house!" he heard behind him as the door opened and Rory stepped out. Emily was close on her heels and Lorelai was chasing Emily. Richard was standing behind them all.

"You shouldn't have done that to him!" Rory yelled at her, there were tears rolling down her face. Jess dashed to her side in a second, standing on the threshold of the house.

"Jess, I'm sorry, we don't have to do this again," Rory told him and he shook his head, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.

"Young man, you are a very bad influence on my granddaughter," Emily told him, and he looked up at her tiredly.

"Listen, you may be able to boss around every other person in your house, but don't you dare try it with me. Don't shout at Rory, don't shout at me… and don't shout at Lorelai. It was our decision not to tell you, and I think we made the right one. I love your granddaughter and I'm going to marry her," Jess told them, his eyes burning with every syllable. "If you have any problems with that, then I'd suggest you steer clear of us, because I'm not leaving."

"Marry?" Richard asked from behind Emily, coming to join the circus.

Rory turned in his arms, but he didn't let her go. She placed her left hand on top of his around her and everyone's eyes were instantly drawn to the ring.

"You're serious?" Richard muttered. The emotions written on his face were a mixture of shock and calculation.

"Yeah, we're serious," Jess said, calming down a little bit now that they'd stopped yelling.

"I forbid it," Emily told him, standing a foot in front of him and glaring daggers.

"As I said, if you don't like it, you don't have to be apart of it. I'm sure as hell not going to force you," Jess almost hissed, angry at still being pressed about this.

"Neither am I," Rory said with him.

"I-," Emily started, but was silenced with a hand on her arm from Richard.

"Go inside, Emily," he told her. His face was a mask of passiveness and conclusion. He'd decided what to do about this situation.

"But-," she protested, but a firm shake of his head sent her inside. It wasn't often that Richard demanded things of his wife, but Richard had grown too close to Rory to have her taken away like Lorelai.

"Rory, is this what you want?" he asked.

"Yeah, I love him," Rory agreed, nodding her head and wrapping his arms tighter around her.

"I know better than to argue with Gilmore women. I don't happen to agree with this happening so young, but I think you have chosen a fine young man," Richard said, giving Jess a look of warning. Jess nodded slowly, saying that he'd gotten the message loud and clear.

"Thank you… Mr. Gilmore." Jess felt the words deeply. Someone in the family was finally accepting him as not being a total delinquent, too pathetic for their precious Rory.

"Don't disappoint me. Where do you current work?" Richard asked, and Rory tensed in his arms. He had a feeling this was probably another warning, but he wanted to try to trust this man.

"I work with my uncle at Luke's," Jess answered honestly.

"A diner? How would you like a real job?" Richard prodded.

"The diner is a real job… what were you thinking?" Jess first started with anger, pissed off at being told his job wasn't 'real'. Luke was being good to him, letting him stay. He didn't want to be bad mouthing him.

"I am one of the top business men at an insurance firm based here in Hartford. I can get you a starting position where you have the opportunity to build a future for yourself," Richard told him, and Jess could see where the warning came from.

"I'm still in school," Jess said with a shrug, not sure why he was even being offered the position if he couldn't have it.

"You can start after your school day," Richard pointed out.

"Okay," Jess said simply, much to the shock of all three of his witnesses.

"Okay?" Lorelai asked from behind her father. He'd forgotten that she was still there.

"Yeah, it's better than shoving stock at Wal Mart," Jess said as an example.

"Good man," Richard finally said, cutting Lorelai off and patting Jess's shoulder. "I'll give you a call and tell you when you start. You will need to get some more… professional clothes."

"Yeah, I figured," Jess said, and cringed at the idea of being in any sort of suit. It wasn't really his style.

"Alright," Richard finally finished with a nod and moved back inside the house. "Thank you for coming."

"Yeah… thanks," Jess muttered after Lorelai came out of the house and the door was closed.

"Why did you answer them?" Lorelai piped up.

"Huh?" Jess asked, having to reel his mind to figure out what she was talking about.

"That, in there! Why did you answer them?" she clarified.

"Mom," Rory protested, but was ignored by both parties.

"And what, lie to your parents like you did?" Jess asked.

"It wasn't like you two were completely honest either," Lorelai shot back.

"That wasn't my choice," Jess muttered under his breath, and the tensing of Rory's back told him that she'd heard it. Out loud he said: "Would you have told your parents? Jeez, you people are completely psychotic. You keep yourselves on such tight leashes, strangle yourselves, and then start attacking everyone around you to get free. Live a little."

"Live a little? My daughter was going to New York, alone, to meet some guy. Would you have let your kid do that?" Lorelai asked him.

"Sure, why not? If I 'trusted' my daughter, then I'd trust her to be able to choose who she wants to be with," he told her, stepping away from Rory and going face to face with Lorelai. They were about the same height when she was in her heels.

"Well I guess that I don't trust my 'seventeen' year old daughter to be the best judge of character, and from where I'm standing, I think I'm right," she hissed, getting into his face as well.

"Stop it!" Rory shouted and stepped between them.

"What? You going to tell me that I stole your daughter again because I'm some punk kid from New York who doesn't deserve her?" Jess fumed. If Lorelai was Rory's dad, he was almost positive that they would have come to blows by now. Then of course, if Lorelai was this bad, what the hell would her dad be like?

"No, I'm going to tell you that I don't want my daughter to be hurt by some jerk from New York," Lorelai shouted, slamming a finger into his chest.

"You know what, I'm finished with you. If you don't want to see me, that's fine. Rory and I love each other and there's nothing you can do about it. I'm a part of your life now whether you like it or not," Jess told her before turning around and marching away.

"What are you going to do, walk home?" Lorelai shouted after him when he didn't stop.

Jess turned just enough to shout, "Whatever!" back at her, before continuing on his way.

Rory looked at her mom for a second, pondering if there was anything to say. She shook her head and looked up at her, feeling deeply hurt by the comments and the constant cutting down of Jess. He was her boyfriend, she expected her mother to be more supportive, but that was just asking too much.

"I'm going to marry him, mom. Please, try to get along with him?" Rory asked her. It was the first time in months that she'd actually taken the time to plead with her over Jess.

"What do you see in him?" Lorelai asked him after a few seconds. They both turned to look at Jess marching down the driveway.

"I don't know, I just love him," Rory said, the goofy smile appearing again.

"I don't want to lose you," Lorelai told her, both still watching Jess.

"Then don't," Rory said simply and ran after Jess.

Lorelai watched them stalk off and sighed. She walked to her car and thought over the situation. They weren't precisely giving her much choice. First it had just been Jess, then Richard, and now Rory was telling her that she 'had' to like him, or lose her. Sighing, she started the jeep and drove out of the driveway. She slowed down to offer Jess and Rory a ride, but they were already ducked in the bushes, making out. Not wanting to interrupt them and risk another fight with Jess, she just drove home instead.

"Rory… I think we should wait," Jess told her calmly.

"Are you sure?" Rory asked him, although he could tell that there was relief in her voice.

"I don't think you should risk it. You have so much ahead of you… I don't want to screw it up like your mom and dad did," he told her, holding her close.

"We, Jess, we don't want to screw it up," Rory reminded him. There was a shared smile, after which Rory grabbed his hand and they headed for the bus station.

"Yeah… we," Jess agreed, letting go of her hand in favor of draping an arm around her shoulders and stumbling to the bus stop with her, almost getting hit by a few cars in the process. They were still kissing when the bus arrived.

"You know, my mom could have given us a ride," Rory told him.

"It doesn't matter, she doesn't want me around," he said, shrugging the comment off and leading her towards the bus.

"I told her that she needs to give you a chance. Hey!" Rory greeted the bus driver. They hadn't seen him since they'd come back from New York.

"I see that you two are still together," he returned, happy that they weren't split up. All the times they'd been on the bus, they'd seemed perfect for each other.

"Whatever," Jess said and nodded his head at the bus driver.

"Trouble in paradise?" the driver asked, noticing Jess's hesitancy.

"It's nothing, her mom doesn't like me," Jess answered with a shrug and led Rory to the back of the bus.

"It was nice talking to you!" Rory told him as she was being taken away.

Once they got to the back, Jess sat down and started sulking. Rory watched him for a few minutes before she got sick of it. Sighing, she grabbed one of his hands and squeezed it, trying to get his attention. He turned to look at her, giving her a look that meant 'what?'.

"Jess, please, give her a chance?" she asked him, giving him her 'puppy-dog eyes'.

"A chance? I didn't do anything!" he objected.

"She's protective over me. Please?" she pleaded further.

"Protective is one thing, telling me that I stole her daughter away and that I'm the worst thing that's ever happened to you is another," Jess accused. If it weren't for the fact that she was sitting in between him and his only exit, he would have jumped off after the comment. Fleeing again, it just seemed to be what he did best.

"Jess, you 'will' give her a second chance. If you love me, at all, you will try to get along with her," Rory told him. She was not going to lose her mother over this.

"What if I say 'no'? What if I don't want to deal with her bullshit anymore?" he asked her.

"Then I don't know if I can marry you," Rory told him, her mouth in a firm line, even though inside she was screaming.

"What?" Jess asked, shocked that this was happening.

"I'm not going to make you choose you over my family. If you make me do this, you will lose," she told him. Even though she felt like standing up and leaving, she knew that Jess would just storm away and there was the decent chance that she'd never see him again. There was the 'look' in his eyes that said he didn't want to answer. Jess avoided questions like the plague, she'd found that out during the summer.

"You know what, Rory? I'm sick of it. First you hide me from your family, because you know this is going to happen, and now you're acting as though it was 'my' choice, as though this shit was 'my' fault. You know what? Until you stop being a fucking hypocrite and apologize, get the hell out of my way," Jess roared, standing up.

"Jess, I didn't mean-," she said, but was abruptly cut off when Jess vaulted over a seat and took off out of the bus at the stop three away from Stars Hollow. It would take at least another hour to get back, walking.

Rory took off after him, jumping out of the bus and after his retreating figure. "Jess! Don't do this! I'm sorry, please don't leave!" she begged, finding it hard to run in her high heels.

"Rory, get back on the bus and leave me alone!" Jess snarled at her, not bothering to turn around. He marched up to a gas station, slamming the door and almost shattering the glass. A crack ran down the middle, and it only extended when Rory stormed in.

"Jess, get back here!" she screamed, tears running down her face and limping slightly.

"Rory, I am not ready to talk to you yet," he told her, marching to the register. "Give me some cigarettes."

"You over twenty one?" the attendant asked.

"Yeah, sure," Jess told him, handing him a piece of modified ID.

"Hunh…" the attendant said, and then gave him the smokes. Once they were firmly in his hand, he turned and left the store.

"You're not smoking those," Rory told him, continuing to follow him out of the store.

"Get back to the bus stop, get on the bus, go away," Jess told her, taking out the cigarettes and popping one into his lips.

"No," she barked, and half-ran-half-limped to get in front of him. She yanked the cigarette from his lip and crushed it beneath her shoe then grabbed the smokes out of his hand and threw them in a garbage can.

"What the hell, Rory?" Jess shouted, walking to the garbage can and fishing out the cigarettes.

"Jess, this is not going to ruin our relationship," Rory told him, taking a stand.

"I'm not doing this to us. I'm not the one who gave an impossible ultimatum. I'm not the fucking one who decided to call this off," Jess told her, and looked at her hand. "May as well take it off."

"You're serious…?" Rory asked, her was voice barely above a whisper.

"Aren't you?" Jess asked, taking out a smoke and placing it in his mouth again.

"Don't smoke that…" Rory said, the shock in her system expanding in waves, trying to register the information.

"Or what?" Jess snapped and lit the smoke. He took the first drag and blew the smoke out. "Get out of here, Rory."

"Jess… please," Rory said, silent tears running down her face.

"Tell your grandpa that I don't want the job, I'll be out of Stars Hollow by Monday," Jess told her, flicking the cigarette out halfway through. He then looked at the pack itself and threw it into the garbage. "Disgusting."

"Don't do this," she finally said, her hands falling together.

"I didn't do anything," Jess said after a few seconds, and his body shook slightly at the shoulders. He turned away from her, pushing the emotions away. "Goodbye."

Rory watched, stunned, as Jess walked away. Her body was trembling, the shock finally settling in. Sobs started to wrack her body and she sunk down to the ground. Her hands shook painfully as she took out her cell phone and speed dialed number one.

"Mom…?" Rory asked. Her was voice cracking and the sobbing causing loud reverberations on the phone.

"Rory, what happened?" Lorelai asked, but Rory didn't hear it. She was sobbing so loudly that she could barely focus, let alone talk. "Where are you?"

"At a gas station… about ten minutes away," Rory managed to get out before she started shaking so badly that the phone slipped through her fingers, fell to the ground and shattered.

The rest of the night passed in a blur, as did the rest of the weekend. When she finally managed to gain some focus, she remembered that Jess said he was going to leave by Monday. It occurred to her that it was quite possible she only had one more chance to get to him before he disappeared, as she had every idea he was going to do. He may have broken her heart, but it was obvious that she'd broken his as well.

Stumbling to Luke's in her pajamas was not a fun event, especially with the flock of people that followed her. By this time, everyone in town knew about her and Jess's break up.

"Jess?" Rory asked as she got into Luke's. The pack all waited outside and the people inside rushed outside to offer privacy, as well as to watch from a safe distance. Luke was left behind the counter, standing tensely and awkwardly.

"He's upstairs," Luke said, motioning and feeling guilty for exposing his nephew, who'd distinctly asked him not to.

"He is?" Rory asked, but didn't wait for a response as she tripped over herself, caught onto the edge of a table and proceeded to run up the stairs.

Jess was slamming things into a bag and talking on the phone. There was quite a bit of swearing involved, including his mother's name. Finally Jess threw the phone against a wall, destroying it. More swearing as he attempted to shove it back together. He then grabbed his bag and turned around to find himself directly facing her. At first he looked like he just wanted to run up and kiss her, before he remembered that he's angry at her and just stared.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, shoving more crap into his bag.

"Don't leave," she said, unable to think up anything else to say. "I don't care about my family, I don't care… just don't leave."

"I have to go for awhile," he informed her, ignoring her comment and grabbing the last piece of his clothing out of the closet. He shoved it roughly into the bag and walked in front of her again.

"I'm not letting you leave," she assured him desperately, and stood firmly in front of the door.

"I'm not giving you a choice," he informed her clearly, but there was no conviction in the words. He moved towards her but she stood her ground. He swung his bag over her and she flinched.

"Don't leave," she repeated, her body trembling at being so close but not being able to touch him.

Jess didn't say anything. He just grabbed her shoulders and kissed her. She kissed him back, taking it as a 'yes' to her apology. She felt them moving and soon felt a wall against her back. Happiness ran through her, exploding like rockets in every single vein of her body.

Just as she was about to wrap her arms around him, he jerked away from her. There was a look of sincere physical pain in his eyes when he did and he turned around, walking out the apartment door and out the door. She stood in shock, realizing that he'd used the distraction to get her out of the way of the door. Shaking again, she fell to the ground, not crying, just feeling numb. The jingle of a bell confirmed everything, every single thought that her mind had.

A scream was bubbling in her throat. Instead of screaming, crying, kicking or shouting like her body was begging her to do, she pulled off his ring and held it in her palm. She squeezed her hand until she felt the pain and felt wetness on her skin. She opened up her hand to see blood surrounding the diamond. Sobbing her eyes out, she crawled to her feet and down the stairs again. The mob was waiting outside, all of them looking distraught.

"Rory, sweetie," began someone, but she ignored them and ran. She kept running until she reached her house.

Once inside, she went into her room and curled up in the middle of her bed, just shaking with grief. Her mother came home sometime and curled up with her. The next day, Rory couldn't get up. She wasn't even able to go to the washroom. Her entire body and mind just felt numb. She couldn't cry, she couldn't react, she didn't respond to anything. The world was moving around her, but she wasn't moving with it.

"Stop that," she muttered, batting away the light.

"Rory?" someone asked, "Rory, are you with us?"

"Who's there?" she asked, continuing to bat weakly at whoever was attempting to talk to her.

"Rory, my name is Doctor Mathews, do you know who you are?" he asked her, and she blinked at him blearily.

"Rory Gilmore?" she asked, trying to sort through her thoughts.

"Alright, Rory, do you know what day it is?" he further prodded. All the while he was poking her with different objects, but she was too weak to stop him.

"Uh… Sunday… March?" she said, unable to pick a day out of her mind.

"Today is March the 16th," he told her, and the numbness in her body almost seemed to be extending., she'd been out for three days.

"Sir… oh! She's awake!" called a nurse from the door.

"He's here?" the Doctor asked, and then turned to Rory. "Do you feel up to visitors?"

"Who is it?" Rory asked, still feeling like she'd been hit with a truck.

"A young man, he's been coming every day," the Doctor told her, and Rory couldn't honestly figure out anyone who'd want to see her.

"I… guess?" Rory said, placing a hand to her forehead.

"Alright, bring him in, but only for a few minutes. She still needs some recovery time," the Doctor told the nurse and she nodded, going to get the visitor.

Things were silent for a few minutes as the Doctor ran a few more tests, she barely noticed. Curiosity thrummed through her at who would be visiting her. Her eyes stayed completely glued to the door. When the nurse appeared, her breath caught. Jess appeared at the door and they froze. Their eyes caught and both just stared. The Doctor and the nurse were talking for a few seconds, but neither of them could get a response out of the two teenagers.

Jess was dressed sharply in a black suit with a white undershirt. He didn't have a tie and the first button was undone. His hair was slicked back, not just gelled. The suit was expensive. It looked like he'd taken Richard's job offer after all.

"Jess," she whispered, and it seemed to shock him back to reality.

"You didn't tell me she was awake!" he shouted at the nurse, betrayed, before turning on his heel and marching out of the room.

"Jess, don't go!" Rory shouted, and tried to launch herself out of the bed. The doctor grabbed one of her arms and dragged her back to the bed.

"You're not ready to go out yet, we need to make sure you're stable," the Doctor told her sternly, but she didn't let him pacify her.

"No, I have to get him, I have to make him understand," Rory cried, and jerked again. The nurse then made her way over and grabbed her other arm.

"I don't want to restrain you, Rory, please, calm down," he told her.

"I can't, I have to get him," she begged, still not focusing.

"Tie her down," the Doctor declared, and the two of them pinned her down on the bed. Before she knew what was happening, she felt a sharp pain in her arm and blinked at the doctor as a needle was pulled from her skin. She slumped back in the bed, unable to move a muscle.

"Rory? Rory?" someone called, and for the second time in as many days, she was pulled out of the smoke that her mind had used to protect her.

"Huh?" she mumbled and tried to sit up. She frowned when she realized that her wrists were tied down. "What's going on?"

"Let her go," a different voice barked, and the smoke finally started to clear enough to see. Over her was a woman with dark hair and blue eyes. After a few seconds, her mind registered her mother, and then her grandmother and grandfather appeared over her shoulder. In the corner, on the very edge of the room, was Jess. All this time, the nurses were wandering around her, undoing her arms and legs so she could move.

"Mom?" Rory asked, and then saw Jess, her body jerked up. His eyes instantly changed to ones of panic. "Jess!"

"I'm going," Jess said, and darted out of the room.

"I'll go talk to him," Richard stated. He gave Rory a nod before leaving the room.

"What's going on?" Rory asked, pressing a hand to her forehead and trying to clear her headache.

"You passed out, Rory…and you didn't come back," Lorelai told her and pulled her into a hug.

"Passed out…? The last thing I remember, I was at Luke's and Jess…" she trailed off, remembering precisely what he'd done to her.

"That… boy, told us," Emily bristled.

"Mom," Lorelai snapped, and Rory frowned at her mother. Was she actually defending Jess?

"So… what happened?" Rory asked, although she was almost positive that she knew precisely what happened.

"When Jess left, we found you in your room, and you weren't responding to anything. You didn't… you weren't there. You just woke up, yesterday," Lorelai told her, petting her and kissing her head.

"We've been worried sick about you," Emily said, tears appearing in her eyes. Rory smiled at her grandmother and motioned her over. Emily almost seemed to skip over. She sat down on the edge of the bed and hugged them both.

Richard came into the room, his steps very precise and angry. "He won't come back," he snapped, then noticed the hug. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Rory said, and motioned him over as well. Awkwardly he moved over beside him and hugged her as well. She felt very loved at the moment, and realized how much her family meant to her.

A few hours later she was discharged and returned home. On the car ride home, the silence was repressive. She barely felt like she could breathe.

"What am I going to do?" she asked, still feeling numb.

"About what?" Lorelai asked, looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

"School?" Rory offered, although they both knew that wasn't what they were thinking.

"I already have you registered for summer school. You can take the rest of the year off because you're already too far behind with this… and the attack," Lorelai told her, sounding a bit strained with this year's activities.

"What's Jess been doing?" she asked after a few more minutes of silence.

"He's finishing his grade eleven year early and has been working full time at your grandfather's company," Lorelai told her evenly, not giving any other hints to his life.

"How could he finish early?" Rory asked, picking up on the comment.

"He's taking the courses in college," Lorelai told her, and Rory frowned.

"How can he do that?" she prodded.

"Your grandpa pulled some strings when he saw Jess's potential," Lorelai told her, and it almost sounded like she admired him.

"So he's doing well?" Rory asked, looking down at her hands and feeling the first strike of tears.

"Yeah, he's going to Chilton for summer school, and then starting his senior year in the fall," Lorelai told her, dropping the final bomb that she'd intended to keep until later.

"Jess is coming to Chilton?" Rory sputtered. Her jaw dropped.

"Yeah, he managed to impress them with his achievements," Lorelai said with a nod.

"Right," Rory said, nodding and rocking in her seat a little bit.

"Are you alright?" Lorelai said, noticing the rocking.

"Yeah, I'm fine, totally okay," she said, not noticing the rocking, or her mother's looks.

"Rory, do I need to stop?" she asked, carefully slowing down so she'd be able to stop in a second.

"No, go… please go, I just…need to get home," Rory said, shaking her head and trying to keep her body from trembling.

Lorelai pulled the speed up and got home with ten minutes shaved off their estimated time. When they got there, Lorelai ended up having to help her get into the house and into her room. The second that she got into her room, it was almost as though the familiar ground snapped her out of her latest lapse.

"I'm tired… I'm going to sleep," Rory told her, stumbling to her bed and falling asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

A knock on the door startled Lorelai from watching her daughter sleep a few hours later. She hadn't moved from the spot after changing her daughter and tucking her in. This would be the first time she was leaving Rory's room since she'd gotten into the room. She went to the door and opened it to see Jess standing there.

There was no other way to say it, he looked like shit. His hair was ruffled and sticking out at odd angles, his suit was rumpled and looked like he'd decided to sleep in it, even though it hadn't been any more than three hours since she'd last seen him.

"What are you doing here… and what happened to you?" she asked him, leaning against the doorframe so he couldn't get past her.

"I just… want to make sure that she's okay," Jess told her, running a hand through his hair again, pulling the gel apart again.

"Rory's fine, now what's the matter with you?" she asked him again, but he just stumbled down the stairs.

"I did this… I put her into this, and… I almost sent her back. I'm such an asshole!" he shouted. Lorelai closed the door gently behind her and walked down beside him, looking at him as he continued to ruin his hair.

"I won't disagree with you… what you did was stupid and cruel. Rory loves you, and you refusing to talk to her is destroying her. You need to stop this," Lorelai told him. She could literally see his walls building up as she spoke.

Getting angry, she grabbed his shoulder, turned him towards her, and slapped him, hard. Since Rory had gone under and she'd learnt of their conversation, she'd never really had this much contact with him. It was ironic that the first thing she did was smack him.

"Jess, snap out of this. You need to go see her, you need to apologize, and you need to help her. You're the only one who can," Lorelai scolded. It hurt that she had to admit his importance in her daughter's life.

"I don't know what to do," he told her after a few seconds. He was gathering, pulling string by string into his normal self. Soon he'd be Jess again. The cold bastard who'd ruined her daughter's teenage life.

"You need to figure out something to do, Jess. I can't help you," Lorelai told him. She then proceeded to stand up to go back inside.

"Thank you… I'm sorry," he said, turning slightly so that his voice would carry. Lorelai froze. The four words were nonexistent in Jess's world.

"Go home. I'll see you tomorrow, after work?" she asked him as he rose to his feet.

"Tomorrow… yeah," he replied, nodding and walking down the rest of the steps and down the driveway, back to town. Each step he took, she could see that he was gaining himself, turning back into Jess. It was a fascinating thing to observe. Not many people saw the softer side of Jess. Now she could see what it was that her daughter saw.

Beneath the crust, the steel door, he was just a boy trying to find himself. As she turned back to the door, she saw Rory's window shift and she stopped. Sighing, she opened the door and moved back into the house. She entered her daughter's room just in time to see her shifting back into her bed, in a mock of sleep. Rory had seen it all.

Lorelai had never known her daughter to be so attached to anyone, especially not so much that she'd actually retreat into her mind for three days, but Jess seemed to have a special place in her heart. It killed her that her place was being taken over, but there wasn't much she could do to help, except to try to accept Jess for who he was.

Moving into the kitchen, she sat down at the table and stared at Rory's door. The two of them were very different from Christopher and her. They weren't reckless and stupid. They were smart, calculated and careful. In the past three days, Jess had opened up more to her and her parents than he'd probably ever intended to, mostly for the sake of not being burnt at the stake. Still, Jess wasn't that bad of a kid, he was just messed up and Rory was one of, if not the, first person who'd ever told him that they loved him.

No matter how she looked at it, she couldn't see how they would work without one another. Rory seemed to go into shock any time Jess was mentioned and Jess had a tendency to freak out and bolt every time Rory was mentioned. It was obvious that they had issues, but every couple had issues. Sighing, she dragged herself to her feet, up the stairs, and to bed. She'd talk to Rory tomorrow, before Jess came, about what she heard.


	8. Pretty Dangerous Corner

**A/N: **I apologise for any mistakes in this chapter. I'm going to rewrite a decent amount of this fic when it comes to the second part of the series, as this was not my intentional trail for this thread. I also need to fill in a few holes, such as Lorelai and Max's engagement etc. So, you can probably be expecting a huge amount of changes happening to the early chapters so that it's not so... empty and lacking in Lorelai/Lane/Dean interactions.

Today had been a very, very long day. College in the morning, classes started at six am, followed by a full eight hour work day, and then helping Luke at the diner. Despite working with Richard, Luke still demanded that he help occasionally, to 'earn his keep'. Glaring at the man talking to him, he started to tap the table with his fingertips. The person seemed to take this as a key to shut up, and Jess then took that moment to speak up.

"There's nothing I can do for you. Sure, you have insurance, but not that type. It's called fine print, get glasses," Jess told him irritably.

"But you can't do that," the man objected, and Jess leaned towards him at the desk.

"I can't do what?" Jess inquired, tilting his head to the side. He'd already managed to scare away three of the customers today. One of them had even gotten their money from him, but that didn't make them any less frightened.

"You can't put me and my family on the street," the man begged, and Jess considered it for a moment. He took out the files again and carefully examined each one. The fine print stated, quite obviously, that the man's claim was completely out of bounds.

"I can't help you," Jess finally re-affirmed, after a few minutes of looking through papers. "And if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to get to." As he stood up, the man first made a move to chase him, but Jess gave him another cold glance, which caused him to scuttle away.

This was a terrible job. He had to tell people every day that they weren't getting money, and that they could kiss their lives, as they knew them, goodbye. Despite it all, he was good at it. He had that 'look' that would make people run in terror, not ask too many questions. At first he'd been a simple run-around boy, which he'd hated, but then he'd been upgraded to personal assistant to one of the advisors, before getting the only 'Advisor in Training' position that they'd ever given out. He had a feel that Richard had something to do with it, but if it was him, he was grateful.

It was Richard that he was going to see at that moment. He had to go see him every day at the end of the shift, to make sure that there wasn't some dire thing that he needed to do before he went home, as well as to make sure that he wasn't being more of a bother than he was worth. When he arrived at "Mr. Gilmore's" office, he knocked clearly, and heard a secretary tell him to come in.

"You can go right in," she told him, waving to the door that lead to the inner office of the insurance business's international affairs leader.

"Thanks," Jess mumbled and slipped inside. Richard was working on some papers and looked up briefly when he walked in.

"Hello, Jess, are you ready to leave?" he asked, but motioned him to a chair anyway. Jess had been working here for almost two weeks now, but he'd never been asked to sit down previously.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, sitting down and watching his mentor carefully.

"No, nothing's wrong," Richard told him, but didn't offer any other explanation.

"Not to be offensive, sir, but I need to get back to Luke's Diner so that I have a place to live," Jess pressed. Luke wasn't too pleased about him taking off school in exchange for college courses and joining up with the insurance company.

"Yes, that's what I wish to speak to you about," Richard said, leaning back on his chair a little bit. Jess frowned, unsure of what he meant.

"Sir?" he asked.

"I want you to move into Hartford so that you will be nearer to your school and your place of work, as well as away from my granddaughter. That way you will not pose as a distraction to each other, as you are no longer together," he stated, although Jess could tell that it wasn't much of a request.

"I don't have the money to do that," Jess said honestly, shrugging his shoulders and attempting to distract from the idea of Rory. Despite telling Lorelai that he was going to go to their house that day after school and work, he ended up begging off and staying home instead.

"You can be set up in some apartments near both facilities," Richard told him, watching his face very carefully. Jess schooled his expression so that Richard couldn't see anything, but he didn't honestly know what he was feeling, so it didn't really matter.

"So… what? You're going to pay for that too? I thought that you were only doing this because of Rory, and I'm not with Rory, so why am I still here?" Jess asked. Any sort of respect was lost in the comment, replaced by confusion.

"You are a remarkable young man, and I want to be the one who helps you along. There is a lot of talent in your mind that is untapped, and I will be the one to tap it," Richard declared.

"So you want me to move to Hartford so you can keep an eye on me?" Jess asked, mildly insulted.

"No, I wish you to come to Hartford so that it will be most convenient for you, and for me. If you don't wish to accept my offer, than you may decline, but there are no strings attached. I believe that it will truly help you," Richard finally finished, and waited for Jess's answer.

"Yeah… okay," Jess finally said, although he felt like he was tying a noose around his neck. If he was out of Stars Hollow, then at least he could avoid the death-glares of all the residents.

"Good man!" Richard cheered and stood up. He walked over to Jess and patted his shoulder heartily.

"So… when do I move?" Jess asked, feeling the numbness of being alone already seeping into his veins.

"Why don't we pick out a place, first? I have a selection of suites for you to take a look at when you have time," Richard told him, and placed a list of apartments, including addresses, in front of him.

"I'll check them out today," Jess told him, deciding that he didn't want to go home to see Luke just yet. He'd leave a message on the phone.

"Alright, then I will be hearing from you in the next few days?" Richard inquired as he moved back behind his desk again.

"Yeah… tomorrow, probably," Jess finished, regaining his composure and standing. "Thanks… for everything."

"Don't disappoint me," Richard warned again, and then with a mutual nod, they both left.

The apartments on the list were large and expensive. Every single one of them was almost three times the size of his apartment with his mother, most of them were more than one story, and the rest were penthouses. What the hell kind of genius did Richard think he was? After checking the last apartment on the list, he finally decided that he wanted one of the ones in the middle. It was not only a penthouse, but a dual story bachelor apartment. For some reason, it was just to his style.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his cell phone. Before working for Richard, he would have never been able to afford one. Richard had footed the bill for the phone itself, but he was supposed to keep it up. With all his calls from work, he had to keep it on constantly and had to get the most expensive plan that he could find, just so that he'd be able to keep up without huge fines. Sighing, he checked his contacts for Richard and dialed his private number.

"Richard Gilmore speaking," Richard barked into the phone, probably expecting some sort of business-natured call.

"I've found the place that I'd like," Jess said, giving up on the formalities. It was almost nine o'clock, he was piss tired, but he couldn't go home.

"Good! Give me the address and I'll have it put aside for you," Richard told him. There was the sound of pens scraping across paper as he mumbled out the address. "That was one of the better ones. I was hoping that you would select it."

"Thanks again for doing this… when can I move in?" Jess asked as a side thought.

"As soon as it's ready, which will be quite soon. Probably within the next week," Richard stated.

Jess mumbled his goodbyes and hung up. He stood by the bus stop and watched the looming creature curve the corner. Thoughts ran through his mind, miles a minute. Finally, when it stopped, he was ready. The bus driver was one he didn't know. Paying the fee, he skulked to the back of the bus and sat down.

Stars Hollow was before him before he could blink, or at least that's what he felt like. It was more of a prison now than an enjoyable place to live. He and Rory avoided each other like the plague and Lorelai took every spare moment to hunt him down and screech at him. What it his fault that he was terrified? According to everyone, including Luke, it was.

It was nine thirty when he finally got into Luke's, and his uncle was just starting to go through the motions of cleaning up.

"Get dressed for work and help me clean up," Luke demanded gruffly.

"I need to talk to you," Jess said, standing by the door. He wasn't going to spend another day there. He had a few dollars still kept hidden away for a rainy day.

"What is it this time?" Luke asked. He threw his hands up in defeat, sick of his nephew's constant excuses.

"I'm leaving Stars Hollow. Mr. Gilmore has offered me a place in Hartford, and I'm going to take it. That way you won't need to be bothered by me anymore," Jess snapped, angry at Luke's anger at him. He was doing his best. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't be everywhere at once.

"What do you mean? What about school, what about Rory?" Luke snarled, moving around the counter so that they were standing directly in front of each other, no barriers to get in the way if he lunged. Jess noted this and pondered leaving.

"My school is in Hartford, even the college," Jess answered, leaving the Rory bit out.

"What about Rory?" Luke pressed, taking another step towards him.

"I'm leaving tonight. I'll be staying at a motel in Hartford until I can move in," Jess provided, continuing to ignore the blatant comments about Rory.

"Jess, you are not leaving that girl this way! So help me, I will force you to stay if I have to," Luke threatened, throwing down his pen and paper. Jess knew that Luke used to be a wrestler, and that the man had at least one hundred pounds and a good half a foot on him. The odds were not in his favor.

"I'm not fighting you… and I'm not staying," Jess said, and then walked towards the stairs casually. The normal crowd had gathered outside the diner, waiting to see what was going to happen. He saw them out of the corner of the eye and noted that Rory was there as well. She was giving him a look that was halfway between anger and complete depression. He hated that look, knowing that he'd put it on her face.

"Jess, this is your last warning," Luke said, but Jess took the final step into the stairwell anyway. Instantly he felt a shift in the pressure around him, Luke was lunging.

Jess dove behind the counter, which sent Luke flying into the stairwell. He could hear cheering from outside the store. People were probably hoping that he'd get his ass kicked. Instead of appeasing them, he grabbed onto his uncle's foot and pulled him out of the stairwell. Luke stumbled to his feet and turned to face Jess, who'd taken off his expensive coat. He was ready for this if he had to do it.

Luke didn't attempt another move, however, and he was left wondering what was going to happen.

"Take your stuff, get out of my diner and don't come back," Luke finally muttered, grabbing his pen and his order pad again.

Jess took a deep, mental breath and grabbed his coat. He moved to the stairwell and up the stairs, where he shoved his things into a bag and ran down the stairs again. The crowd was still there, probably waiting for him. Rory was no where to be seen. Before any of them saw him standing there, he ducked into the back door and out into the alley. There, barely an inch from his face, was Rory.

"What are you doing here?" he asked after the initial shock. He tried to sound angry, but there was just no energy left in his body.

"Where are you going?" she asked, frowning at the bag.

"I'm leaving, moving to Hartford," he told her, shuffling awkwardly and moving past her.

She grabbed onto his hand and refused to let go, even when he attempted to pull it away. She turned him around and pressed him against the alley's wall with her body. An instant mixture of lust and longing hit him. It took all his effort not to just apologize and promise never to leave her again.

"Why? That's so… not you," she told him, backing off so that they weren't pressed together.

"What is 'me', Rory? This is so unlike you, why the hell are you chasing me? Leave me alone," he told her, but he couldn't find it in himself to push her away. He couldn't touch her. He knew that he'd give in.

"I love you, and even if you won't admit it anymore, I know you love me too. You're running away like a coward, and Jess isn't a coward. The Jess 'I' love, isn't a coward," she told him, pressing a hand to his chest when she saw the thoughts pass though his eyes. He was going to run again.

"Then I guess that I'm not the Jess you love, am I?" he asked, glaring at her. Gritting his teeth, he shoved her hand off and moved past her. He was running, again. It seemed to be the only thing that he could do lately.

Rory watched him leave and felt her world shattering. She'd been so close, but he'd pushed himself away. She wasn't going to give up on him so easily, she loved him. Looking down at her finger, she noted how the diamond on her ring continued to catch the light and shine like a star, despite the fact that its promised two were no longer speaking. Wrapping her arms around her waist, she numbly walked out of the alley and through town, back to her house.

Once home, she entered her room, which was filled with books. Since she'd been told she couldn't return to school until summer, she'd taken two different jobs. One of them was at the diner, opening it with Luke in the morning and helping him with the afternoon lunch rush. Jess was always there during the evenings, so she'd never offered to help with those. Her second position was at the bookstore. She'd go between shifts at Luke's and help out, as well as pick out books to cart home.

"Rory, I'm home," Lorelai called from the main hall.

"I'm in my room!" Rory answered back and pulled out another book. In the past week, since she saw Jess fleeing at the hospital, she'd read over fifteen books, just attempting to absorb something, but they all seemed to bounce off.

"Want some dinner? I got Indian food!" she asked, and Rory felt her stomach growl.

"Why? You hate Indian food," Rory shouted and moved into the kitchen, following her nose.

"I heard about what happened today at Luke's," Lorelai told her, "and I thought that it would be good to have a girl's night. I brought Willy Wonka!"

"A girl's night sounds great," Rory said with a nod. It's all they'd been doing lately, 'girl's nights'.

"Great, well let's eat and get on it, I wan to see those Oompa Loompas!" Lorelai cheered.

Halfway through the movie, Rory felt the unyielding need to call her grandfather. She needed to yell at someone about Jess, and if she couldn't yell at Jess himself, then she may as well yell at her grandfather for taking him from her. Slouching over to the phone, not disturbing her mother who'd fallen asleep, she took it into her room and sat down on her bed. She dialed his number and waited for him to pick up.

"Hello, Richard Gilmore speaking," he answered formally, and she realized that this was probably an ill-thought out plan.

"Grandpa? This is Rory," she told him, trying to keep her voice light, even though she was screaming inside.

"Rory! How nice to speak to you, how are things there?" he asked her, making polite conversation.

"Actually, Jess just left for Hartford today… he told me that he has an apartment there," she said, hinting to the obvious connecting.

"Yes, I've set him up for one to allow him access to his schooling and position within our company easier. That way he won't need to result to public transportation," Richard told her jovially, not understanding that she was upset with him.

"Why?" she asked coldly.

"What do you mean? He's a fine young man who needs to be equipped with everything that he needs to succeed," Richard explained.

"I need him, grandpa, me, here in Stars Hollow, and he needs me. He doesn't need some apartment!" she objected, rather loudly.

"I'm sorry, Rory. I offered and he accepted, I had no idea that you two were back together," he stated.

"We're not… back together," she mumbled.

"I believe that this will allow you to concentrate without each other's presence. I know that you were very close, but perhaps with some time and space, you will be again," Richard offered, but she could tell that he didn't believe that.

"Sure," Rory whispered and hung up the phone. Tears pooled to her eyes again and she fell back into her bed. A few minutes later, she was asleep.

Sometime during the night, Lorelai woke up, realizing that she had half-fallen off the couch and that the TV was hissing its objecting to being on so late. Grumbling about awkward positions and televisions that don't automatically turn off, she got to her feet and stumbled to turn it off, falling on her face twice during the trip.

During the perilous journey, she also took note that Rory was no where to be seen. With that in mind, she instantly started behaving herself and tip-toed to the kitchen, where she peaked into Rory's room. One looked was enough to tell her that her daughter was asleep. It was a rare thing. Mostly Rory would just work, then come home and work some more. Lorelai knew that it wasn't healthy, but there was nothing that could be done for it.

The morning came around and Rory was out of bed at the crack of dawn, she'd overslept, or at least she had according to her. Every day Rory woke up at five in the morning, before anyone else was awake, except Luke. She'd head over to the diner and help open, and then she would go to the bookstore and work there for a few hours before returning to Luke's for the afternoon shift. She'd been doing it ever since Jess left for Hartford. He hadn't called, hadn't answered his cell phone. It was like attempting to talk to a wall.

Tonight was the first dinner that they were going to since the last blowout. Rory was doing her best to waste as much time as possible. When it was just drawing on five thirty, she knew that she would have to go home or they would be late.

"Hey, Rory, could I talk to you a minute?" Lorelai asked, walking into Rory's room with coffee.

"Don't we have to go soon?" Rory responded, finishing the last few words on her latest article for the Franklin. Despite being out of the school, she was still involved in the newspaper.

"Yeah, I just wanted to ask you how you're taking all this, with Jess being so close to grandpa?" Lorelai inquired.

"He's scared, he'll see what he's doing soon," Rory said confidently, although Lorelai could hear the crumbling on the outer edges of her voice.

"But what if he doesn't? I don't want to tell you not to hope, but what if Jess really isn't the," she paused, looking for a word, "…boy you think he is? You only knew him for a few months, maybe he's different," Lorelai reasoned.

Rory looked away, back at her computer screen. It wasn't as though the thought hadn't occurred to her before. She and Jess had screwed up. She never, ever, should have asked him to keep their relationship a secret on her part. Jess shouldn't have reacted the way that he did to her family. The Rory Gilmore package included her family. There was no way out of it. She had accepted that already quite some time ago, it was time for him to do so too.

"He will. I don't know how I know, but he will," Rory told her, shrugging her shoulders and standing up. "We'd better get ready."

"Okay, you can shower first," Lorelai told her, taking her coffee into the kitchen and pouring it down the sink.

Two showers, some clothes and half a bottle of hair-mouse later, the girls were ready to go. They met on the front porch, both of them ready but neither of them wanting to go. They hesitated, looked at each other, hesitated again and then stopped trying.

"One of us should probably tell the other to get going," Rory muttered, frowning at her lack of conviction in her comment.

"Yup," Lorelai agreed, but neither moved.

"We're going to be late," Rory stated.

"Yes we are," Lorelai agreed once more. They both looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes.

"I don't want to go," Rory whined, pouting a little bit.

"Neither do I," Lorelai whined back, and did a little 'nervous dance'.

"We should probably go," Rory reasoned, but the pout didn't go away.

"Come on," Lorelai scowled, grabbing her daughter's arm and hauling them both towards the car. Once she got to the door, they both stopped moving again.

"I don't want to go," Lorelai whined again, doing an encore of her 'nervous dance'.

"Let's go," Rory sighed, opening her mother's door and running around to the passenger's side. They both crawled in and hesitated.

"Do we have to go?" Lorelai asked.

The rest of the ride to grandma's house was done with the two girls singing, off key, about hunting lions. It was a cheerful fifteen minute drive, considering what they were getting themselves into. Once they reached the house, both of them hesitated again.

"Let's go," Rory said, not bothering to wait for her mother's objection and hopped out of the car.

"Fine," Lorelai griped as she hopped out of the car and limped after her daughter. Once they reached the front door, both of them stopped again.

"Into the lion's den," Lorelai muttered under her breath.

"To face the lion…" Rory finished, but left the sentence trailing off, as it was apparent that neither of them knew how this night would end.

When the door opened, there was already talking in the study. The new maid was shivering in her shoes, as though she was already too terrified for words. The second that they were inside, she closed the door and ran back into the kitchen.

"Who's here?" Lorelai whispered, before she saw her daughter's face. It looked like Rory had been hit by a train. This caused her ears to perk up. She heard the monosyllabic answers that were trademarked to Jess. "Oh boy."

"Can we go?" Rory asked, just as Emily stepped around the corner from the study.

"I thought I heard you two, come in! Richard has invited Jess for dinner, isn't that lovely?" Emily greeted. Her voice was chipper and forced.

Lorelai grabbed Rory and dragged her into the study. There was an instant pause in the 'conversation', one sided as it was, when Rory and Lorelai walked into the room. Everyone paused, looking between the two teenagers.

"Rory! Look who's here," Richard further prodded, shocking everyone out of their staring contests.

"I'm not ready for this yet," Jess grumbled and stood up. "Thanks for inviting me, but… I can't stay."

"Jess, wait," Rory said, catching his arm as he pushed past them all.

"What?" he snapped and they stared at each other from a few inches away.

"Stay," she told him, averting her eyes and looking anywhere but him. "You were invited too, you don't have to leave because… well, you don't have to leave."

"Fine," Jess muttered and shuffled in place.

One look at him and you could tell that he wasn't comfortable in his own skin. He was wearing an expensive suit, no doubt provided by Richard, and his hair was slicked back against his head again. He reminded her of some sort of rich jerk that they used to taunt in New York when they went to some of the more expensive districts. It hurt to see him looking like someone he hated so much.

"Would you like something to drink, Lorelai, Rory?" Richard asked, acting like the outburst between Jess and Rory had never happened.

"I'll take a soda," Rory said quietly and drifted over to the loveseat.

"Water?" Lorelai asked, and everyone but Jess stared at her like there was something wrong.

"Water?" Richard attempted to confirm.

"Yes, water," Lorelai responded with a nod and sat firmly beside Rory, to make sure that her parents didn't attempt to get Jess to sit beside her. If there was any chance of the two of them talking, it wouldn't be because they were forced to sit beside each other.

Silence blanketed the room for a few seconds as everyone looked between the teenagers again. Rory was sitting with her hands in her lap, eyes drawn to said hands. Jess was slouched in his chair, looking anywhere but at her.

"So… should we move into the dining room?" Richard suggested.

"Yes, dinner will be served in a few minutes," Emily chirped in, standing up jerkily and motioning to the next room.

Lorelai stood up, carrying Rory with her. Richard followed them into the dining room, boxing any hope of exit. Jess tailed behind Richard. There was a moment when he looked towards the exit, thinking about ditching, but turned to follow them instead.

If Richard had thought that being at the dinner table would allow for better conversation, he was painfully wrong. What little there was to say was probably best not said at the table, and the sharp glanced between Rory and Jess were scalding the others in the room.

"I'm… going to the washroom," Jess finally stated, standing up and marching tensely out of the room.

"I'm going to go check on dinner," Rory instantly perked up, and chased after Jess, in the opposite direction of the kitchen.

"Finally, I thought they'd never leave," Richard sighed, relieved as the tension drained.

"You're evil," Lorelai told them, glaring.

"Hey," Rory said as she entered into the room that she found Jess in.

"Hey," he said back, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"You look ridiculous," she told him honestly, trailing slowly into the room and up to him. She reached up and messed up his hair.

"Yeah, I hate it," Jess said honestly, allowing her to mess up his carefully-crafted hair.

"So… that was awkward," Rory said, moving away from him again.

"And continues to be," he muttered.

"This is stupid, Jess. Why are we even doing this?" she asked him, crossing her arms across her waist and looking at him earnestly.

"Doing what?" Jess demanded. His voice and body were instantly jerked into anger.

Before either of them could say anything stupid, Rory rushed towards him and kissed him. It didn't take more than a few seconds for Jess to respond. They were almost instantly completely enthralled with each other, hands wandering.

"What are we doing?" Jess asked her between kisses, his mind slowly catching up with his body.

"I don't know," Rory responded half-heartedly, hoping that he'd just shut up and run with it.

"Rory, stop," Jess told her, grabbing her hands and pushing her away.

"Jess, don't do this," she told him, grabbing the sleeve of his suit and trying to keep a link with him.

"No," he rasped, jerking his sleeve away and running out of the room. He ran right past the adults at the table, who were by now on the main course.

Emily, Richard and Lorelai all shared looks of knowing. They had a very, very good idea about what happened in that room. Their suspicions were only confirmed when Rory came down the stairs, very slowly, into the room. She looked as though someone had ripped her heart out, again.

"I think we're going to go," Lorelai told them, and for once, Emily and Richard didn't object to them leaving early.

"So… what happened?" Lorelai asked when they left the house.

"He doesn't love me," Rory whispered, freezing in place and feeling the tears she'd been holding back releasing slowly.

"He loves you," Lorelai objected, pulling her daughter to her and hugging her closely.

"Then… why does he keep doing this?" Rory asked.

"Because he's confused," Lorelai told her.

"Why? I love him… and if he loves me, what's wrong?" Rory pressed, terribly confused by hey ex's emotions.

"I don't know," Lorelai admitted. Although she sounded comforting, all she wanted to do at that moment was rip Jess's head off.

"Let's go home," Rory murmured, pulling herself into the car and curling up on the seat.

The ride home was silent as they both pondered the boy of Rory's dreams. While Rory was pondering why he was being such a jerk, Lorelai was pondering how to murder said jerk and get away with it.

When they arrived home, Rory slipped out of the jeep and hesitated. It appeared to be a theme for the night.

"It's going to rain, we should probably get inside," Lorelai suggested.

"Yeah… I'm going to go for a walk, okay?" Rory responded, obviously having not heard a word her mother had said to her. Without waiting for a response, she drifted down their driveway and into town. Lorelai watched her go and felt even more of a homicidal urge than she'd ever felt previously.

Rory swayed into town as the rain started. She ignored it for the most part, but it still snapped her out of her dream world, so to speak. It brought her out enough for her to realize that she was completely drenched. Shivering, she saw that Luke's light was still on. Her body took her to the diner of its own will, but her mind didn't appear to care where it went, just so long as it could mourn in peace.

"Hey," Luke said when she entered into the diner. He was a bit surprised to see her without Lorelai, especially on a Friday. "What's up?"

"I saw Jess," Rory answered bluntly.

"Oh," Luke said. His voice and body seemed to fall with the word.

"I don't know what to do…" Rory admitted, looking very small in the middle of the diner, water dripping from her hair and clothes.

"It's a Danes… and Mariano thing," Luke told her, grabbing the fire blanket he kept beneath the counter and moving around the counter to wrap it around her.

"Thanks," Rory whimpered, holding the blanket around her and sitting down on the nearest chair. Luke sat down across the table from her.

"Everyone in our family is weird… his mother's insane, his father's… he's a jerk. Jess was bound to turn out… strange," Luke explained, in his bed Luke-way.

"Jess told me about his dad, and I met Liz," Rory told him with a shrug.

"Piece of work, isn't she?" Luke grumbled, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

"I only ever saw her drunk… is she always drunk?" Rory asked.

"I don't know, I haven't seen her since Jess was born. She calls every once in awhile to tell me that she's getting married, but I never actually see her," Luke told her, shrugging and clasping his hands in front of him.

"She's pretty…" Rory offered, echoing his shrug.

"So… I take it that the 'seeing Jess' bit didn't work out that well," he muttered, trying to take the subject off of his sister.

"He ran away," Rory responded, curling into herself again.

"Typical. His dad runs away, his mom runs away, of course Jess is going to run away," Luke grumbled.

"His mom ran away?" Rory inquired. Jess had told her a bit about his family, but mostly he's said that there wasn't much to say.

"The second that the will was read," Luke stated bitterly.

"Oh… I'm sorry," Rory said, even more confused by her ex-boyfriend.

"Eh, it's just the way she is," Luke brushed it off, shuffling in his seat awkwardly again.

"So… it's the way Jess is too?" Rory asked.

"I don't know, we didn't exactly, 'hold hands and skip together'," Luke told her, using a reference that Jess mentioned on more than one occasion.

"'Hold hands and skip together'?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's nothing," Luke explained.

"Right," Rory laughed, realizing that she felt a little bit better. "What do you think I should do?"

"Me? You're asking me for advice?" he asked, shocked.

"You're the only person who knows Jess… at all," she urged.

"I've only seen Jess twice before he moved in… and even then, he was usually with you, or at work," Luke protested. When Rory's face fell, however, he seemed to want to redeem himself. "Alright… I don't know that much about him, but I did know his father. Jimmy Mariano was a jerk whose only skill in life was running. If Jess is anything like Jimmy, then he's already managed two things that Jimmy never did."

"What?" Rory prodded, excited at the idea of hearing about Jess's dad. Jess told her that he didn't even know his father's first name.

"He's committed to one girl and he didn't run halfway across the world after breaking up," Luke explained. Liz and Jimmy had been together twice before Jess was born. The first time he'd run away to Canada and had to come back when he'd run out of money and drugs, the second time was when Jess was born. No one knew where he was at the moment, but then of course, no one had ever really looked either.

"That sounds promising," Rory said, thinking about the situation happily.

"I don't know what to suggest other than being careful," Luke told her, sighing nervously. He didn't want to give her the wrong advice.

"Thanks… I'm going to go home, but can I use your phone?" Rory asked, a plan formulating in her mind.

"Yeah, sure," Luke told her, rising to his feet quickly and pointing to the phone. There was obvious relief that he was out of the conversation. "Good luck."

Rory smiled at him, which had been rare lately, and picked up the phone. She had to pull out her cell phone to get the number. She didn't know it by heart. Her phone had died a few hours ago. It was only on long enough for her to get the number before it died again.

"Hey, grandpa?" she said into the phone after the elder Gilmore greeted her.

"Rory, I wasn't expecting to hear you today, especially so late," he told her.

"Can you do me a favor?" Rory asked, hugging her arm around her for comfort and tugging the blanket tighter around her shoulder.

"What would you like?" Richard replied, feeling that he owed her something after the Jess-confrontation that night.

"Can you ask Jess to meet me at that little coffee place by his building?" Rory asked, and there was brief moment of silence on the other end before Richard finally responded.

An hour later, at almost ten at night, Rory stumbled into the café. The bus ran a little bit late, but Jess was still there. She smiled when she saw that he was in one of his band t-shirts, jeans, and had his hair gelled straight up. He looked like the old Jess, the one that she'd first met. He was brooding at the table, nursing some sort of drink in front of him.

"You're not exactly dressed for a business meeting," Rory said as she arrived at the table.

Jess, who was most definitely not expecting Rory, snapped to attention. He looked around to see where the hidden camera was, or perhaps were Richard was waiting, but it didn't look like there was anyone else there.

"Rory, what's going on?" he asked, rising to his feet when she didn't sit down.

"Jess, I love you, I know you love me, and I think what we're doing right now is stupid," she told him, putting a hand on his arm lightly.

"So… what would you rather we be doing?" he sighed, looking up at the ceiling in an attempt to avoid looking at her.

"Come back to Stars Hollow," she told him, trailing her hand down his arm and grabbing his hand. Jess's eyes were draw to her hand and then to their hands, even as his fingers grasped hers of their own violation.

"I can't. I have to stay here," Jess told her, then realized that he was actually considering her response. "Besides, there's nothing for me in Stars Hollow."

"What?" Rory gasped and recoiled from him.

"Look… Rory, I love you, I won't lie to you. But until I know that I have you, all of you, and only you, and I know that you want me, all of me, and only me, I can't be with you. I have changed, but there's only so much a person can do," Jess told her, not bothering to regain contact, even though his body wanted him to.

"I know… I love you, just as you are, right now. You didn't need to do the suit thing. You didn't have to take the job with my grandpa. Just, be with me, and only me, okay?" she asked him, still wanting to work things out.

"I'll think about it," he told her, but brushed past her and out of the café again.

Rory watched him go, feeling herself slip again. How many times had she attempted to make things right now? How many times were too many? Feeling an abrupt feeling of depression close in on her chest, she knew that she didn't have another time in her. If Jess refused her, she would have to let him go. Tears stung her eyes again, but she wouldn't let them fall.

Before she knew what she was doing, she was tearing out into the streets. It was late enough that the streets weren't that busy. The rain was pouring hard now, drenching what little of her body had gotten dry since her brief stints in Luke's and the café. She tore into Jess's building at top speed. She slipped on the tiled floors a little bit but regained her balance quickly. She looked at the stairs, but decided that they weren't worth it. Instead, she pressed the button on the elevator. It opened right away and she stepped in, nervous about the situation now that she was actually there.

When the doors opened at the penthouse, she walked down the hallway that led to Jess's apartment very slowly. Her hand rose up to knock on the door, but it was opened before she could.

"Jess-," she started, but he pressed a finger to her lips.

"Shh," he whispered and pulled her into the apartment, kissing her as they went.

At first the kisses were just remembering each other, but soon they got heated again. Rory gently tugged on his shirt, which was still wet. She pulled it over his head and it fell to the floor. She soon found her shirt was on the floor as well.

"Come on," he told her, pulling her to his bedroom.

Rory felt a thrill of excitement at the very idea of doing what they might be doing. When they got into his bedroom, which was completely Jess, including ten billion posters on the walls and clothes everywhere on the floor, Jess pulled her over to the bed. They resumed kissing after a few seconds, falling onto the mattress.

When the morning rolled around, Rory looked around, confused. She was still in her underclothes, but she was also wearing one of Jess's over-shirts. There was no memory in her mind of putting it on. Despite this, she felt comfortable wearing it. As she was lying there, basking in the mid-afternoon glow, she remembered the night previous. They hadn't actually had sex, as neither of them thought it was entirely appropriate after just getting back together. They'd fallen asleep in each other's arms, both agreeing that they were back together again.

Jess had told her that he would be gone in the morning, he had work. Despite this, there was a note on the bed beside her. She picked it up and read it carefully. It simply said to meet him at the apartment again that night.

Rory bounced off the bed and put on a pair of Jess's pants. They were huge on her, but they were infinitely better than attempting to wear her wet skirt. Snatching the belt from her skirt, she fastened it tightly around her waist so that it wouldn't fall off. After that struggle, she grabbed her clothes, shoved them into a bag and ran out the door to catch the next bus, so that she wouldn't have to wait an hour.

The bus ride was like floating, she barely noticed it. After weeks of Jess pining, they were back together again. There was no reason for the awkwardness that seemed to echo whenever she was around Luke, or around her grandfather.

When she hopped off the bus, she ran into Luke's, where her mother was lingering, and the two of them shared a 'squealing' moment, where they hopped up and down and hugged. When they were finished and they sat down, Rory looked over at Luke, who was watching them with a smile. She grinned back and waved. Luke waved back before going off to tend to an order and Lorelai stole Rory's attention back.


End file.
